With climate change and Covid, times might look bleak but there is hope out there. According Murray Bookchin’s text The Ecology of Freedom the origin social and ecological problems are intertwined and cannot be solved by ignoring one party they are also equally rooted in the attempt to dominate everyone and everything. In this episode Bernadette and Tim will introduce you to the concept of Social Ecology, is it a possible solution to our problems or an outdated concept?

Text

Bookchin, M. (1982). The ecology of freedom (p. 232). New Dimensions Foundation

You can find an online version of the text here

Time cues

00:09 Introduction

00:37 The Status Quo

01:19 Introduction to Social Ecology

02:56 Ecology vs. Environmentalism

03:52 The aims of Social Ecology

04:10 First Nature, Second Nature, Third Nature

05:07 What is “wholeness”?

06:24 Social Ecology, Nature and Hierarchies

10:43 Interview with Blair Taylor from the Institute for Social Ecology

16:38 Definition 1 (of Social Ecology)

17:43 Definition 2 (of Social Ecology)

18:58 The Relevance of Social Ecology today

20:25 Social Ecology in our everyday life

21:39 Farewell

22:12 Outro/Quote

Guests

Blair Taylor https://social-ecology.org/wp/author/blair-taylor/)

Links and ressources

Institute for social ecology https://social-ecology.org/wp

The Text https://libcom.org/files/Murray_Bookchin_The_Ecology_of_Freedom_1982.pdf

Democratic Confederalism Beyond the Frontlines – The Building of the democratic system in North and East Syria https://rojavainformationcenter.com/storage/2021/06/Beyond-the-frontlines-The-building-of-the-democratic-system-in-North-and-East-Syria-Report-Rojava-Information-Center-December-2019-Web-version.pdf

Solar Punk Explanation https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SolarPunk

Mutual Aid – A Factor of Evolution https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petrkropotkin-mutual-aid-a-factor-of-evolution

Credit

Cover art: Anna Mahendra

Music: ZakharValaha https://pixabay.com/music/jingles-piano-cassical-brand-motive-logo-9997/

Felix Spieß

In episode 05-Introducing Multidimensional poverty Fabian Schmidl and Miriam El Agha talk about the multidimensional poverty index and the progress of countries, which have managed to reduce multidimensional poverty. The hosts address the following questions: When are households considered to be multidimensionally poor? Is there a threshold? What impact does Covid-19 have on multidimensional poverty? The text this episode is based on is “The global Multidimensional Poverty Index” in: Global MPI 2020 – Charting pathways out of multidimensional poverty: Achieving the SDGs. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI).2-12.

Resources

“The global Multidimensional Poverty Index” in: Global MPI 2020 – Charting pathways out of multidimensional poverty: Achieving the SDGs. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI).2-12.

Time Cues

00:06 –1:01 Self imposed poverty

1:04 –3:05 1.Introducing multidimensional poverty 2. Overview 3.Third semester 4.Poverty and inequality

3:06 – 05:38 1.Multidimensional poverty Index 2.Degree of deprivation 3.Dimensions 4. Indicators

05:39 –08:00 1.Multidimensional poverty reduction 2. Progress 3. SDG division 4. Multidimensional poverty

08:01 – 09:45 1.Sir Tony Atkinsons 2. A clearer picture of poverty 3. A different perspective

09:50 –12:46 1.Covid 19 influence 2. Restriction of school attendance 3. Exclusion 4.Malnourishment

Guests and Sound bites

1. Anastasia (guest wants to stay anonymous)

2. Jens Völksen

(Anastasia and Jens Völksen provided sound bites for the podcast. They expressed their opinion, explaining which of the following poverty dimensions they consider important for a good life: Poverty dimensions: 1. Health 2. Education 3. Standard of living).

Links and terms

Global multidimensional poverty Index: 

„The global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) is an international measure of acute multidimensional poverty covering over 100 developing countries. It complements traditional monetary poverty measures by capturing the acute deprivations in health, education, and living standards that a person faces simultaneously“(Global Multidimensional Poverty Index, 2018, Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative).

Definition cited from this webpage: OPHI (2018) .https://ophi.org.uk/gmpi-2018/

https://www.h-brs.de/de/sv/podcast-talking-texts-1

Credit

Cover art: Anna Mahendra

Music:

Fabian Schmidl

01:00 – 03:04 Welcome

03:05 – 09:48 Sorry Plight

09:51 – 14:57 Astonishment

Jingle: Felix Spieß

In episode 0-introducing Talking Texts season 02 you will hear about what topics are covered in this season why you should listen and what the hosts like so much about the episodes.

Time cues

00:23.1             01:06.2             What is talking texts

01:06.2             02:8.7              The single episodes in the season

02:08.7             03:19.4             Question 1:What are the episodes

about?

03:19.4             05:06.1             Question 2: How will the listener

benefit?

05:06.1             07:01.8             Question 3: What do the hosts like

best about their episode?

07:01.8             08:40.1             Is there anything that needs to be

added?

08:40.1             09:08.2             0utro and jingle

Links

https://talkingtexts.de/the-podcast/

https://talkingtexts.de/episode-05/

https://talkingtexts.de/episode-06/

Credit

Cover art: Anna Mahendra

Music: Felix Spieß

Ressources

https://talkingtexts.de/episode-0s02-introducing-season-02/

In this Interview Tim and Blair discuss Social Ecology, what it is and how it can help tackle the crieses of today. Blair talks about his background in environmental and social activism and provides examples where the concept has already been sucessfully applied and how it can give hope to everyone.

Time cues

00:00.0 00:18.7 Preliminaries

00:18.7 03:50.0 Introduction

03:50.0 06:12.0 Why is Social Ecology still relevant today?

06:12.0 10:28.4 How does Social Ecology influence our everyday lives?

10:28.4 12:39.6 Which field of academia would profit the most from integrating Social Ecology?

12:39.6 18:49.2 Which role will Social Ecology play in the future?

18:49.2 20:02.0 Outro

Links

Institute for social ecology https://social-ecology.org/wp

The Text https://libcom.org/files/Murray_Bookchin_The_Ecology_of_Freedom_1982.pdf

Credit

Cover art: Anna Mahendra

Felix Spieß

In episode 4a of talking texts inferential statistics – mind the gap We, Karina and Bernadette,discuss the text: “Inference and error in surveys” in: Survey Methodology by Groves et al. We explain the meaning of the words inference and error, summarize the text and talk about why it is relevant. In addition, we talk about Sherlock Holmes and how statistics can make the world a better place.

Time cues

These time cues will help you find the topics we discussed or resume where you stopped listening.

00:00:00 Introduction of hosts, topic and text

00.02.34 Part 1

00.02.34 What does inference mean?

00:03:58 What is error in statistics?

00:04.36 How seeing error from a statistician's point of view might improve our lives

00:05:43 Part 2 What is the text about and why does it matter?

00:05:59 Features of the text we found difficult

00:06:54 Summary of the text

00:08:50 Why is the text relevant

Links and resources

link to episode page

http://talkingtexts.de/episode-4/?preview_id=131&preview_nonce=2021cc2346&preview=true

Credit

Cover art: Anna Mahendra

Music Bela Bartok, Irene Damert, Felix Spieß

In episode 4b we, Karina and Bernadette, explain some of the notions of error and statistical concepts. We then discuss one of the tasks from the text and present our solutions .

Time cues episode 4b

00:00:39 Part 3: different concepts in inferential statistics

00:01:09 Inferential and descriptive statistics

00:02:18 Error in studies

00:03:20 Errors of observation

00:04:58 Errors of non-observation

00:07:58 Part V: Discussion of Task from: Inference and Error in Surveys

00:08:26 Information before starting

00:09:19 What are the important parameters of the study?

00:10:37Discussion of task 1a)

00:11:24 Discussion of task 1b) and 1c)

00:15:49 Summary

Links and resources

Literature

GROVES, Robert M., et al. “Inference and error in surveys” in: Survey methodology. John Wiley & Sons, 2011. 39-67.

https://talkingtexts.de/episode-4/

Introduction

Welcome to episode 3 of the podcast “talking texts”. In this episode “skipping class – Is attendance, the solution for good grades?”, Jimmy and Luisa explain the main results of the scientific paper “Skipping class in college and exam performance: Evidence from a regression discontinuity classroom” and discuss their own experiences with skipping.

Time cues

00:00 Introduction

00:45 Opener for episode

01:50 Study design and facts

04:22 Results

05:40 Conclusion and own experiences

08:01 Closing words

09:45 Outro

Guests

Celina Depiereux

Christopher Klemmer

Resources and links

Dobkin, C., Gil, R., & Marion, J. (2010). Skipping class in college and exam performance: Evidence from a regression discontinuity classroom experiment. Economics of Education Review, 29(4), 566-575. link

Link to website https://talkingtexts.de/episode-3/

Word list

Midterms – important exams in the middle of an academic year

Attendance rate – percentage of how many students actually visited the class in average.

Mandatory – a class is mandatory when you have to attend all the classes dates of a course.

Regression discontinuity – scientific tool to compare pretest and posttest performance after implementing a specific policy

Credit:

Cover art: Anna Mahendra

Music Bela Bartok, Irene Damert, Felix Spieß

This is the podcast Talking Texts: the podcast about important texts from your degree program. In episode 2 – Is abortion a crime? the hosts Marzia and Marlow will talk about the text “Abortion regimes of the OECD countries and their determining factors by comparison” by Edith Gindulis. This text deals with the issue of abortion and its criminalization. It also discusses which countries have questionable abortion rights.

Time cues

00:01 introduction

01:24 opener

01:26 topic of the text

02:45 statistical background

05:28 conclusion

06:58 discussion

10:37 outro

Links and resources

Gindulis, Edith. Die Abtreibungsregime der OECD-Länder und ihre Bestimmungsfaktoren im Vergleich. Österreichische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft, 2002, 31. Jg., Nr. 3, S. 315-336.

Link to the text: https://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/handle/document/6004

Link to website https://talkingtexts.de/episode-2/

Credit:

Cover art: Anna Mahendra

Music: Felix Spieß

In today's episode of Talking Texts, the hosts Christoph and Rick explain the economic use of Nudging in everyday live and how the number of organ donations can be increased using nudging techniques. While giving several examples of how Nudging can affect any of us, their episode is based on the award-winning bestseller book: “Nudge: Improving-Decisions-Health-Happiness” from Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein.

Time cues

00:00 Opener

00:51 Intro

01:08 What is Nudging? Examples.

05:32 Nudging and Organ Donation

10:18 Discussion                                         

16:00 Outro   

Terms

Verhaltensökonomik is behavioural economics in English

Bundeszentrale für gesundheitliche Aufklärung (BZgA). This translates as federal center for health education. The task of this centre is to inform citizens about health and important measurements. For more information go to their webpage.

"REWE" is the name of a supermarket-chain in Germany. REWE is short for "Revisionsverband der Westkauf-Genossenschaften" (Audit union for Westkauf-Cooperatives).

Links and Resources                                     

German Version: Nudge. Wie man kluge Entscheidungen anstößt (übersetzt von Christoph Bausum). Econ, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-430-20081-3

Thaler, R. H., & Sunstein, C. R.. Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness. Penguin. 2009.

Link to website https://talkingtexts.de/episode-1/

Link to BZgA https://www.bzga.de/home/bzga/

Credit

Cover art: Anna Mahendra

Music Bela Bartok, Irene Damert, Felix Spieß

This episode of talking texts introduces the hosts and single episodes of the first season. We will talk about the purpose and aim of the podcast as well as how it can help you with difficult texts from your degree program.

Here is the link to the webpage: https://talkingtexts.de

You’ll find the single episodes by clicking on the respective links:

Ep. 0 https://talkingtexts.de/episode-0/

Ep. 1 https://talkingtexts.de/episode-1/

Ep. 2 https://talkingtexts.de/episode-2/

Ep. 3 https://talkingtexts.de/episode-3/

Ep. 4 https://talkingtexts.de/episode-4/