Tag: M3 The Grip of Money and Food

United States Food System: Energy, Waste and Manipulation

Presenter: Tristan Pettigrew

Mentor: Gyoung-Ah Lee

AM Session Oral Presentation

Panel Name: M3 The Grip of Money and Food

Location: Maple Room

Time: 11:00am – 12:00pm

What does a future of food security and seed sovereignty look like? Or, more importantly, how is it represented today within the borders of the United States? Since its inception, methods of agriculture have under gone many changes; however, two events in our recent history, the Industrial Revolution and the Green Revolution, have changed both the scale and effect of agriculture in unprecedented ways. Both have increased our dependence upon fossil energy as a driver for the production, transportation, and storage of our caloric necessity. Throughout this project I hope to highlight areas within the U.S. food system of unsustainable practices. More- over, I hope to offer possible solutions to our current situation.

Occupy Wall Street and the Transformation of the Public Sphere

Presenters: Madeleine Dunkelberg, Aaron Honn and Hailey Chamberlain

Mentor: Vera Keller

AM Session Oral Presentation

Panel Name: M3 The Grip of Money and Food

Location: Maple Room

Time: 11:00am – 12:00pm

We examined the formation and manipulation of the public sphere and that concept’s relation to the current Occupy Wall Street movement. Theories of the development of the modern public sphere, particularly the work of German sociologist Jürgen Habermas, informed our work. We focused on his theory that representative publicity facilitated the creation of the public sphere and formed our own concept of inverse representative publicity, applying that to Occupy Wall Street. We compared the roles of representative publicity and the public sphere in the Occupy movement and the French Revolution. To illustrate how Occupy leaders formed an inverse representative publicity, we analyzed Occupy’s use of new, virtual media such as Twitter, as well as the symbolism incorporated in their propaganda posters. Viewing Occupy Wall Street through the lens of the history of the public sphere, we found a correlation between Occupy Wall Street’s goals: all could be construed as part of a movement to transform the public sphere.

Is it Viable to Group Countries with Differing Cultural Values into the Same Monetary Union?

Presenter: Nicholas Drushella

Mentor: Barbara West

AM Session Oral Presentation

Panel Name: M3 The Grip of Money and Food

Location: Maple Room

Time: 11:00am – 12:00pm

Since the crash of the euro in 2008 and the ensuing global economic meltdown, Europe has entered into a phase of fierce political and economic debate surrounding the common currency. In their haste to restore consumer confidence and stabilize the euro-zone, policy makers have neglected to address several critical questions. Specifically, what were the underlying causes of the euro’s troubles? More importantly, why has the road to recovery been exceedingly strenuous? I argue it is due to a massive cultural rift that exists be- tween the northern and southern regions. Through a cross-cultural comparative case-study of two major regional players, Germany and Spain, we will examine how national culture is gauged and to what effect cultural differences have on the long-term viability of the monetary union. In working towards a solution it is important to recognize the immense challenge of incorporating culture into economic policy due to culture’s seemingly unquantifiable nature. Despite the difficulties that arise from such a complex problem, the European Monetary Union can no longer afford to make decisions based solely on the recommendations of economists but must include information from other fields of study if the euro is to have a future. The adoption of this new approach to fiscal policy would not only affect the euro-zone countries, but also has the potential to fundamentally alter how all industrialized nations view the rela- tionship between economics and culture.