Paper No. 2 | Mariazell-Eugènia Bosch Fábregas "Center for Energy and Environment Research"
As a branch of feminism, ecological feminism is concerned with social and environmental issues. This feminist environmental philosophy on ecology focuses on a gender perspective which tackles the relationship between the ‘natural’ world and humanity. It has been widely suggested that the Western patriarchal society and culture has brought systematic degradation to the world and the human/nature relationships. Likewise, it implies the existence of a relationship between the oppression and exploitation of socially and culturally considered groups (such as women) and the violence exerted over nature and all its living beings.
The aspect of female work oppression is very common in Family Guy, a sitcom that continuously depicts female characters in a very biased way from male-dominated (and targeted) view. The study of the series from a gender and ecofeminist perspective will serve to bring powerful insights on the unequal representation of women and their relationship to the world. In this sense, I will analyze the employment discrimination in the series in this paper to see the extent to which Family Guy illustrates the concerns that ecofeminism deals with.
Keywords: ecofeminism, Family Guy, gender, human-nature relations, job, nature, subtitling, women.
Paper No. 1 Leyla Ateş "Transparency as a Key Prerequisite for the Success of Energy Subsidy Reform: A Case Study of Tax Subsidies in Turkey
During the 2009 Pittsburgh Summit, G20 leaders recognized the harmful effects of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies on markets and the environment, and committed to “rationalize and phase out over the medium term inefficient fossil fuels subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption.” To achieve this commitment, Turkey and other G20 member countries need to make parallel efforts to reform their domestic policies. However, national governments must share a more-or-less common understanding to define, measure and evaluate fossil-fuel energy subsidies for the success of the subsidy reform. Otherwise, this commitment could be negatively impacted by creating an opportunity to hide subsidies. The OECD contributes to these parallel efforts with statistical studies providing transparent and accurate estimates of budgetary support and tax expenditures to fossil fuel producers and consumers in many countries, including the G20. However, the OECD measurement method requires identifying and evaluating individual countries’ fossil-fuel subsidy policies. The OECD collects and assembles the information mainly from publicly available government sources. Thus, adequate national transparency rules are a prerequisite for the accurate measurement of fossil-fuel subsidies leading to successful international efforts. This study aims to demonstrate the extend to which national transparency rules impact the evaluation and definition of domestic fossil fuel tax subsidies by external agencies by using a case study of Turkey.