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China's progressive assumption as a major actor on the African scene needs critical academic attention and examination. Although there are undoubtedly varied benefits, there are also concerns about whether China's win-win rhetoric is sincere or just empty propaganda. This paper contributes to the debate by examining the relationship between China and Africa through the lens of neo-colonialism. In this regard, the paper examines China's involvement in the textiles and mining industries of Ghana as a case study to argue whether the partnership between China and Africa is one that actually promotes development or engenders a new trend of neo-colonialism. Since this research focuses on areas such as partnership (i.e., between Ghana and China) and illegal mining with its effects, it intersects four of the SDGs (clean water and sanitation [SDG 6]; sustainable cities and communities [SDG 11]; life below water [SDG 14]; and partnership for the goals [SDG 17]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Singapore, on 19 December 2020, a trendy restaurant served nuggets prepared with chicken meat grown by the company Eat Just. According to customers, this product was similar in taste and texture to 'conventional meat'. In the National Review, journalist Matthew Scully welcomes this innovation and emphasises its re-humanising character. The aim of our paper is to show that this innovation, described by the journalist as a 'civilisational milestone' is based on what Mauss called 'a merchant's moral'. Cultured meat refers to powerful economic issues and generates alliances that are more economic-political than ethical. Far from 'rehumanising' us, it leads instead to replacing the living work of humans and animals with the dead work of machines. In other words, it dehumanises us and enslaves us. To show this, we first question the notion of 'real meat' and the historical dynamics that have led this product to being part of a project of agriculture without breeding. We then question the links between these innovations and the 'defenders' of animals and the planet, and the representations of animals underlying these links. Finally, we show that the morality of the merchant who promotes cultured meat is opposed to the universal morality of gift that has been building our relationship with domestic animals for ten millennia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contribution of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) to community sustainability remains an understudied topic of academic inquiry. Focusing on southern and central Ontario, Canada, the ways in which NTFPs may contribute to sustainable livelihoods are explored, along with how a fragmented sociopolitical landscape and the potential impacts of climate change might impede the development of the sector. Following interviews with twenty NTFP producers, four key themes highlighting the major challenges and opportunities are discussed. This paper contends that for an economically viable, socially just and environmentally sustainable NTFP industry to emerge, political-ecological power relations informed by critical social and environmental justice thinking must be understood and addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores responses to COVID-19 by the Buddhist organisation Soka Gakkai in Japan. Sōka means 'value-creation', but what kind of 'value' was created amidst a global pandemic? So-called 'new religions' in the context of Japan are typically presumed to embody a 'flight from the human world' into the exotic and remote. SG's response, however, encouraged people to stay very much within a 'human-bound world'. How did SG differ compared to other popular responses in Japan that drew on yōkai (or 'spirits') for comfort in defeating the soon objectified virus 'monster'? SG may be well-built for responding to disaster in its extensive grassroots networks and its daily newspaper to provide information. Responding with a renewed focus on study, chanting and outreach also highlights, however, how the meaning of 'hope' and 'well-being' were generated by internal change while structurally working to realise the SDG s as part of more long-term solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adoptés solennellement par les 193 États membres de l'Organisation des Nations unies en septembre 2015, les Objectifs du développement durable (ODD) sont présentés comme « 17 objectifs pour sauver le monde » (United Nations 2015). Ils proposent à tous les pays, sans aucune exception, des réponses aux principaux défis qui se posent à l'humanité, parmi lesquels ceux qui sont « liés à la pauvreté, aux inégalités, au climat, à la dégradation de l'environnement, à la prospérité, à la paix et à la justice » (id.). En cela, ils portent un programme d'éducation au politique qui se lit de façon transversale dans toutes les cibles envisagées, mais qui apparaît de la façon la plus explicite dans certaines de celles qui concernent l'enseignement. Cet article se concentre sur celles qui sont focalisées sur l'éducation au développement durable, et plus précisément encore sur l'évaluation qu'en organise le programme PISA de l'OCDE en prenant la mesure de la « compétence globale ». Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by the 193 Member States of the United Nations in September 2015, are presented as "17 Goals to Transform our World" (Sustainable development (un.org)). These prospects provide answers to the main challenges facing humanity, including those linked to "poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, prosperity, peace and justice" (id.) to all countries. The related goals carry on a political education program that can be considered transversally in every target envisaged, mainly in educational terms. This paper focuses on those related to education for sustainable development, and more precisely to the evaluation organized by the PISA program of the OECD by measuring "global competence". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]