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Research paper thumbnail of INEQUALITY, DEVELOPMENT AND COVID-19

This essay is an attempt to analyse the relation between inequality and development according to ... more This essay is an attempt to analyse the relation between inequality and development according to Deaton (2015) and investigate the past causes of inequality being the gains through capital and the practice of capital and private property inheritance on one side and the emerging of new "super" wages of top managers in modern societies, especially in the case of the US (Piketty, 2014), on the other. It then refers to how inequality impacted societies during the COVID-19 pandemic. It analyses the most affected economic victims of the pandemic as well as it explains why these groups are the most vulnerable to current state regulations according to actual sources taking from UN reports (Sumner et al., 2020) and different journals-American Journal for Public Health (Bowleg, 2020), Journal of Public Economics (Adams-Prassl et al., 2020)-arguing that today Deaton's assumption that health is the prerequisite for wealth can be inverted by arguing that today wealth is necessary for health. Finally, it gives a glimpse on how human development could be measured in present and future times according to the United Nations Development Programme of 2020.

Research paper thumbnail of Welche Rolle spielte der Wertewandel der Generation der Erstwähler in

Thesis Chapters by Mathilde Knöfel

Research paper thumbnail of Alternative human rights approaches in the Anthropocene: Challenging the mainstream UN sustainability discourse by understanding interdependence and practising interconnectedness

In this thesis I argue that the UN approach to environmental and human rights challenges is preva... more In this thesis I argue that the UN approach to environmental and human rights challenges is prevalently an anthropocentric one, still based on the idea of human exceptionalism. Even after attempts of including climate and biodiversity in their frameworks, the mainstream discourses still do not take into consideration the wholeness and importance of environmental interrelations and interdependence. Opposing the limited profit-driven view of decision makers in industrialised and high-income countries, this thesis offers some relevant alternative and supplementing views and practices. These alternative approaches are especially designed to explain the meaningfulness of the whole ecosystem in the life of every sentient being on the planet, as well as non-living matter. I draw them from systems thinking, Buddhist philosophy, and the multi-species and autoethnography methods, focussing on their understanding of the ecosystem as an inherent part of the human being rather than vice versa.
This thesis’ core aim is therefore to raise awareness over the fundamental causes that led human agency to bring about environmental degradation. This is achieved through the analysis of the environmentally destructive belief-system or mainstream paradigm that is in place, especially in capitalist highly industrialised societies, also referred to as the Capitalocene (Haraway, 2016). It then stimulates the reader to practise self-reflection, a habit that is too often neglected by the highly distractive, inputs overloaded, and time-lapsing lifestyle of such societies. The originality of this thesis lies in the method echoing the content. I argue that understanding and practising interconnectedness is the key to overcoming the environmental challenges of the Anthropocene. I adopt a multi-disciplinary approach starting with policy analysis and discourse deconstruction, followed by insights of philosophy and hard sciences, concluding my claim with anthropological autoethnography.
In the first half of the thesis, after presenting the mainstream discourses developed by the UN around human rights and sustainability, I deconstruct the discourses and highlight some of their main shortcomings. In the second half, I introduce worldviews contesting the one upon which the mainstream discourses are based. These worldviews provide a unifying paradigm in their way of approaching environmental concerns from an angle of mutual interdependence and interconnectedness among all beings on the planet. Moreover, they represent a fundamental shift of perspective needed to understand humans’ belonging, agency, and responsibility in the ecosystem. Finally, the experiences gained during my final dissertation project in Denmark, will serve as complementing examples to these views. In the last section I describe concrete cases of alternative ways of doing research, building communities, and practicing interconnectedness.

Research paper thumbnail of INEQUALITY, DEVELOPMENT AND COVID-19

This essay is an attempt to analyse the relation between inequality and development according to ... more This essay is an attempt to analyse the relation between inequality and development according to Deaton (2015) and investigate the past causes of inequality being the gains through capital and the practice of capital and private property inheritance on one side and the emerging of new "super" wages of top managers in modern societies, especially in the case of the US (Piketty, 2014), on the other. It then refers to how inequality impacted societies during the COVID-19 pandemic. It analyses the most affected economic victims of the pandemic as well as it explains why these groups are the most vulnerable to current state regulations according to actual sources taking from UN reports (Sumner et al., 2020) and different journals-American Journal for Public Health (Bowleg, 2020), Journal of Public Economics (Adams-Prassl et al., 2020)-arguing that today Deaton's assumption that health is the prerequisite for wealth can be inverted by arguing that today wealth is necessary for health. Finally, it gives a glimpse on how human development could be measured in present and future times according to the United Nations Development Programme of 2020.

Research paper thumbnail of Welche Rolle spielte der Wertewandel der Generation der Erstwähler in

Research paper thumbnail of Alternative human rights approaches in the Anthropocene: Challenging the mainstream UN sustainability discourse by understanding interdependence and practising interconnectedness

In this thesis I argue that the UN approach to environmental and human rights challenges is preva... more In this thesis I argue that the UN approach to environmental and human rights challenges is prevalently an anthropocentric one, still based on the idea of human exceptionalism. Even after attempts of including climate and biodiversity in their frameworks, the mainstream discourses still do not take into consideration the wholeness and importance of environmental interrelations and interdependence. Opposing the limited profit-driven view of decision makers in industrialised and high-income countries, this thesis offers some relevant alternative and supplementing views and practices. These alternative approaches are especially designed to explain the meaningfulness of the whole ecosystem in the life of every sentient being on the planet, as well as non-living matter. I draw them from systems thinking, Buddhist philosophy, and the multi-species and autoethnography methods, focussing on their understanding of the ecosystem as an inherent part of the human being rather than vice versa.
This thesis’ core aim is therefore to raise awareness over the fundamental causes that led human agency to bring about environmental degradation. This is achieved through the analysis of the environmentally destructive belief-system or mainstream paradigm that is in place, especially in capitalist highly industrialised societies, also referred to as the Capitalocene (Haraway, 2016). It then stimulates the reader to practise self-reflection, a habit that is too often neglected by the highly distractive, inputs overloaded, and time-lapsing lifestyle of such societies. The originality of this thesis lies in the method echoing the content. I argue that understanding and practising interconnectedness is the key to overcoming the environmental challenges of the Anthropocene. I adopt a multi-disciplinary approach starting with policy analysis and discourse deconstruction, followed by insights of philosophy and hard sciences, concluding my claim with anthropological autoethnography.
In the first half of the thesis, after presenting the mainstream discourses developed by the UN around human rights and sustainability, I deconstruct the discourses and highlight some of their main shortcomings. In the second half, I introduce worldviews contesting the one upon which the mainstream discourses are based. These worldviews provide a unifying paradigm in their way of approaching environmental concerns from an angle of mutual interdependence and interconnectedness among all beings on the planet. Moreover, they represent a fundamental shift of perspective needed to understand humans’ belonging, agency, and responsibility in the ecosystem. Finally, the experiences gained during my final dissertation project in Denmark, will serve as complementing examples to these views. In the last section I describe concrete cases of alternative ways of doing research, building communities, and practicing interconnectedness.