Ecologies in Focus
Matter Transgression: From the Workshop to the City View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ophelia Mantz
Post-pandemic, France is promoting new ways of inhabiting domestic space by learning from COVID. However, certain models have emerged from a slower transformation. We examine how do-it-yourself (DIY) work may indicate paradigm changes in French society. This essay describes the characteristics and changes in DIY across time in France based on the momentum created by social sciences in the 1970s. It explains how DIY is able to generate changes in people’s behaviour and thus offer possible new models for economy and production. However, to play a role in both twenty-first century housing and the contemporary city, action taken on matter must be spatially legitimised. Therefore, the historical role of homo faber and his workshop in the construction of la cite is discussed. Workshops allow transgression of current material culture led by the ideas of abundance and accumulation. Thus, DIY is viewed as a way of being in the world that allows the construction of new economic and productive models during an era of ecological transition.
Featured Geometric Morphometric Analysis of Freshwater Fish Body Shape Variation Across an Altitudinal Gradient in the Zat Watershed (Morocco) View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Abdelilah Ahnich
The phenotypic flexibility and adaptability of freshwater fish can lead to morphological and structural changes in response to variations in their environment. The study of these responses is of paramount importance in understanding the vulnerability of these species to environmental perturbations, whether of natural or anthropogenic origin. In this research, we used an altitudinal gradient as an indicator of environmental variations and examined its impact on fish morphology. We chose barbels, which occupy four different geographical stations, as biogeographical samples. We explored correlations between several variables using biological, ecological, morphological, and environmental analyses. Analyses of water quality revealed its improvement upstream, favoring the isolation of Luciobarbus callensis reveling its adaptation to high altitudes, while downstream, the disappearance of Luciobarbus magniatlantis highlighted the sensitivity of these populations to variations in environmental quality. Ait Ourir barbels showed a reduction in the distance between their dorsal and pectoral fins as they moved upstream, while Tamgounnssi barbels showed an increased eye diameter and maximum body depth. In contrast, upstream barbel from Mriouate and Zerouane showed higher values for eye diameter, with Mriouate showing a longer pre-orbital distance and Zerouane a shorter pre-orbital distance. These observations suggest potential adaptations of fish to different environmental conditions along the altitudinal gradient, in response to thermal and hydrological variations. Other morphometric and functional characteristics were also influenced by selective environmental factors. These results highlight the sensitivity of barbel to climate change, paving the way for future studies in the field of ecological conservation.
The Importance of Urban Mobility in European Strategies for Urban Development : Shared Mobility in Italy View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Stefania Montebelli
The contribution offers a summary vision of the problems that Italy finds itself facing in the pursuit of urban sustainability objectives in line with the EU strategies for achieving climate neutrality by 2050. The growing urban demographic concentration makes the city the true test bed for future community and global challenges. European policies for sustainable urban mobility are particularly important. In Italy, the majority of Metropolitan Cities have updated their Urban Plan for Sustainable Mobility (PUMS) for the strengthening of rapid mass transport, the railway, for the renewal of ecological fleets of public and private transport. Of particular relevance is the growing importance of sharing mobility as a sustainable alternative to transport for the fight against air pollution and the consumption of urban environmental resources.
The Urban Informal Economic Sector Insights Towards Developmental Programs of the Local Government of Muntinlupa City View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Racquel Raymundo
This study aims to enrich the understanding of the vulnerability challenge in the informal economy in Muntinlupa City to effect new policies to address the needs of this sector. The analysis includes the household dimension of the several forms of informality, revealing how informality is a socio-economic indicator of the government’s developmental project for sustainability which is more complex than the usual traditionally-advocated and short-lived livelihood programs for the city’s individual workers, families or groups. The study explores present understanding across patterns and forms of informality across and within the barangays that led to the understanding that the long-standing description of the informal sector is often not revealed as a more complex reality because of its rampant occurrence in urban areas. This study reveals how large, concerning and seemingly disconnected the priorities are in terms of their knowledge, understanding and information the informal sector has access to, as regards to programs to alleviate poverty and occupational risk combined with lack of access to social protection and risk management instrumentalities. This is affecting many informal economy workers especially the vulnerable groups and their families. The study also explores the commitment to the implementation of administrative functions to suggest priority areas and/or other policy makers to address the vulnerability in the informal economy. This study presents the need to protect the informal economy workers and explores the programs that are aligned to informality of labor. Challenges in the implementation and sustainability of identified programs to their transition to formality is presented.
