Meditation is a first-person method for contemplating ourselves and the world, with more than 2500 years of history, rooted in the philosophical and contemplative traditions of the east. The present chapter aims to explore this worldview in order to demonstrate its relevance to our capacity for the appreciation of beauty. To this end, the aesthetic experience, the contemplative experience and t…
One of the challenges plaguing the health of people is the effect of chronic diseases. Life expectancy of people has continued to be at stake due to the emergence of chronic diseases. The centers for public health in various countries have raised concern that there is a need for urgent intervention to address this challenge. Self-management is the key to a healthy life and healthy aging. Accord…
Learning in Cognitive Niches
This study aims to determine the way that the women who define themselves as religious Muslims dress and act in a manner that evokes femininity at home. During the study, focus group interviews were held with 10 religious women (9 veiled, 1 non-veiled), and in-depth interviews were held with two women who were members of the İsmailağa community. The participants of the focus group interview w…
Introductory Chapter: Aging is a Preventable Disorder
The transition to low-carbon urban water utilities is an innovative idea, only embraced by a few forward thinking utilities currently. This roadmap is directed at urban water utility managers in charge of planning future actions, as well as at the stakeholders who will support the utility action plans. Because only a few “early adopters” utilities have embarked on the Low-Carbon transition,…
Beni-Amer cattle owners in the western part of the Horn of Africa are not only masters in cattle breeding, they are also knowledge sovereign, in terms of owning productive genes of cattle and the cognitive knowledge base crucial to sustainable development. The strong bonds between the Beni-Amer, their animals, and their environment constitute the basis of their ways of knowing, and much of thei…
With the rise of the ‘knowledge for development’ paradigm, expert advice has become a prime instrument of foreign aid. At the same time, it has been object of repeated criticism: the chronic failure of ‘technical assistance’ – a notion under which advice is commonly subsumed – has been documented in a host of studies. Nonetheless, international organisations continue to send advisor…
The integration of food into urban planning is a crucial and emerging topic. Urban planners, alongside the local and regional authorities that have traditionally been less engaged in food-related issues, are now asked to take a central and active part in understanding how food is produced, processed, packaged, transported, marketed, consumed, disposed of and recycled in our cities. While there …
Many developing countries—Viet Nam included—continue to struggle to raise incomes per capita. A common feature of the growth and development process is a fundamental change in the pattern of economic activity, as households reallocate labour from traditional agriculture to more productive forms of agriculture and modern industrial and service sectors. Broad structural transformation and wid…