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conduciv has written 125 articles so far, you can find them below.


Think Tank

Beyond Disposable: A Paradigm Shift in Consumer Living

All day, everyday, we do it without really thinking about it. Pull that coffee filter full of spent grounds out of the machine after your morning cuppa, and toss it into the kitchen trash. Grab a paper towel from the office pantry to serve as a napkin for your lunch break, wipe your mouth and [...]

Table of Contents

August/September 2011

  Conducive Magazine‘s new issue is on the topic of land and farming. We look at the power of possessing land and the power of entities with not enough land to posses it. Why You Should Care About Land Grabs The recent phenomenon of aggressive land takeovers, also known as land grabs, has resulted in [...]

Sustenance

Why You Should Care About Land Grabs

How Do You Grab Land? The recent phenomenon of aggressive land takeovers, also known as land grabs, has resulted in the taking of enormous portions of land throughout Africa. In 2009 alone, nearly 60 million hectares of land was purchased or leased throughout the continent for the production and export of food, cut flowers, and [...]

Think Tank

Education Is in the Streets

When students took to the streets in Rome last November to demonstrate against proposed budget cuts to the university system, they introduced something new to the vocabulary of protest. To defend themselves from police truncheons they carried improvised shields made of polystyrene, painted, on the front, with the names of classic works of literature and [...]

Think Tank

New Book Argues that Environmental Degradation is Slow Violence

A memorial for the victims of the Bhopal disaster. photo: Luca Frediani/Creative Commons Rob Nixon’s Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor (Harvard University Press 2011) explores the slow, steady, and often ignored violence of socio-environmental degradation around the globe, and the writer-activists trying to bring it to light. By Christine Shearer August/September 2011 Conducive [...]

Sustenance

Liberalizing the Economy May Crush the Culture of One Small Island

The flight from Seoul to Jeju Island is only 45 minutes, but in Korea this is as far from mainland Korea you can get geographically and mentally. Jeju is a volcanic island located half way between the Korean mainland and the western tip of Japan. It is an island set apart from the rest of [...]

Table of Contents

June/July 2011

Misinformation about food and climate change is everywhere. This edition of Conducive Magazine helps readers decipher how environmental myths became environmental “truths”. Why People are Living in Denial Kari Marie Norgaard helps us understand how and why societies fail to act on climate change in Living in Denial: Climate Change, Emotions, and Everyday Life (MIT Press, [...]

Think Tank

Why People are Living in Denial

Kari Marie Norgaard helps us understand how and why societies fail to act on climate change in Living in Denial: Climate Change, Emotions, and Everyday Life (MIT Press, 2011) By Christine Shearer Conducive June/July 2011 Don’t be fooled by the title of Kari Marie Norgaard’s Living in Denial – this is not a book about people [...]

Think Tank

How Scientists Became “Merchants of Doubt”

Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway uncover the history of a small group of Cold War scientists and advisers who battled anything, including scientific research, that might threaten their vision of American free enterprise in Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming (Bloomsbury Press, [...]

Sustenance

The Revolution is in the Dirt

In the first article in this series on reducing our reliance on consumerism as a way of life, I provided environmental, social, and economic evidence for why it is important that we start to make changes in our everyday lives. In this, the second in the series, I focus on food production at home as [...]

Beneficial People

A Big Step for Science, a Huge Step for Argentina

Conducive Magazine occasionally features profiles of public thinkers, policy researchers, practitioners, academics, or community workers doing worthy, but possibly unpublicized work. A brain drain, where the best scientists leave their home countries, is a problem for many Latin American, African and Asian countries. Claudio Fernández returned to Argentina in 2006 with a clear goal in [...]

Table of Contents

April/May 2011

Living in a nation synonymous with excess, it is difficult to avoid the allure of mass consumption. While notions of consumerism certainly drive the global economy, people are beginning to realize that increased consumption often creates more problems than solutions. In this issue of Conducive Magazine, our writers explore the theme of consumerism and how [...]

Space Style Dialogues

What To Do With Your Old Clothes?

Some of us are tired of staring at that once used ensemble from that one wedding 10 years ago. Others have absolutely no idea what to do with that prom dress under the bed next to our fluffy house slippers. Well, now there’s a great way to get rid of a one-time outfit while helping those [...]

Space Style Dialogues

A Car-Free Life

For many of us, a completely car-free lifestyle seems like a near impossibility. However, for residents of one German town, getting around without an automobile is their current reality. Vauban is a new experimental, one square mile, upscale suburban district near the French and Swiss borders. By Joanne O’Donnell April/May 2011 Conducive It was completed [...]

Sustenance

To Soy or Not To Soy… That is the Question

It seems the more I read about food, the less inclined I am to be waving any sort of banner in anyone’s face about what we should or should not be eating. Why? As hinted at in a previous article, I am coming around to the notion that what we choose to put in our [...]

Think Tank

Girl Power and the Consumer

In 1999, Jancee Dunn followed the lives of twelve teenage girls for Rolling Stone magazine. All of the girls were from Connecticut, with parents firmly in the middle class. All of the girls aged between fourteen and sixteen. They lived typical suburban lives. They attended school regularly, after school they hung out in their rooms [...]

Sustenance

The Revolution Will Not be Bought

This is the first of a series of articles that will help us move beyond consumerism and consumption as a world view and lifestyle. The articles will offer suggestions and provide resources that will allow us to take on more responsibility for producing for our own needs, and help conserve our planet as well. By Nicki [...]

Table of Contents

February/March 2011

To celebrate Black History Month Conducive Magazine has a special feature on African American literature. Yes African American Literature Exists. So Does Racism. Steve Sherman, Editor in Chief of Left Eye On Books, discusses the relevance of African American literature. The New Jim Crow: A Book Review Michelle Alexander sketches the latest mutation of American [...]

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Conducive is a magazine devoted to critical thinking about ways to deal with social problems and looking for viable solutions to dilemmas we face on both a local and worldwide scope. We also features articles covering innovative ideas and research accessible to a diverse audience of progressives interested in social change.

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RSS From Conducive Chronicle

  • Will fossil fuel companies face liability for climate change?
    In a recent article in National Journal, Americans for Prosperity (AFP) President Tim Phillips said there is no question that AFP and others like it have been instrumental in the rise of Republican candidates who question or deny climate science: “We’ve made great headway. What it means for candidates on the Republican side is, if you … […]
  • Beyond Disposable: A Paradigm Shift in Consumer Living
    All day, everyday, we do it without really thinking about it. Pull that coffee filter full of spent grounds out of the machine after your morning cuppa, and toss it into the kitchen trash. Grab a paper towel from the office pantry to serve as a napkin for your lunch break, wipe your mouth and […]
  • Why You Should Care About Land Grabs
    How Do You Grab Land? The recent phenomenon of aggressive land takeovers, also known as land grabs, has resulted in the taking of enormous portions of land throughout Africa. In 2009 alone, nearly 60 million hectares of land was purchased or leased throughout the continent for the production and export of food, cut flowers, and […]
  • Drilling in the Arctic: Perspectives from an Alaska Native
    On October 3, 2011, the Obama administration said it was moving forward with oil-drilling leases off the coast of Alaska issued by the Bush administration in 2008. The leases had been challenged by environmental groups, opposition that gained momentum after the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon disaster. Yet the Interior Department said it would uphold nearly […]

RSS From Imagined Magazine

  • Association of Black Women Historians Blasts ‘The Help’
    Movie Poster for ‘The Help.” Although just released on August 10, “The Help,” a film adapted from Kathryn Stockett’s novel, has already run aground of racism charges by the Association of Black Women Historians (ABWH). In its formal statement to moviegoers, the Association of Black Women Historians (ABWH) admonishes  the film for “widespread stereotyping” of […]
  • Single Mothers a Public Health Problem? Depends on Who is Asking the Question
    “Unwed mothers suffer long-term health woes,” read the headline in the Los Angeles Times on June 2. I felt myself cringe as I took it in, not just because of the significance of this statement, but also because of the use of the term “unwed mother.” After reading the full article, my initial cringe turned […]
  • How the English Empire Accidentally Created the Wedding Industry
    We can thank the British for many things: the colonization of much of the world, not passing on their dentistry or cooking skills, our accents, the postage stamp, Mr. Bean, the pay toilet and gravity, just to name a few. But one thing we have never given them credit for is creating the wedding industry. […]
  • Goodbye Hymen, Hello Hyphen!
    Each generation has their heated issue when it comes to marriage. Once upon a time, it was imperative to maintain the virtue and innocence of a young woman (i.e.: the presence of her hymen) on her wedding night. In present times, the average age of sexually active women is 17. Therefore, contrary to the repressive […]