GLOBAL BUSINESS STRATEGY - IMF Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

GLOBAL BUSINESS STRATEGY - IMF - Essay Example 3. State holds the authority of law and establishes adequate procedures. 4. The power of state has to be distributed and fragmented among different centers. Power at one center should be minimized. 5. Last, state eradicates the fragmentation of powers by dejecting the system of check and balance. Economic Nationalist Theory This theory focuses on developing, flourishing, and guarding national economies. It is widely used in the cases of world markets. Upsurge in the growth of national economies as a result of increased exports created the reality of national economies. This theory emphasizes that there must be a domestic control on capital formation, labor, and economy even if it requires imposition of quotas and tariffs to restrict the movements of goods, labor, and capital. The notion has been generated from the idea that a country would perform better if its local industries were protected from the international competitions. Some of the measures for implementing on this theory in clude Import Substitutions, Protectionism, and Mercantilism. Under this theory, the government or the state has extensive control on trade and economic matters. Currency depreciation, tariffs, export subsidies, and quota restrictions are some of the methods utilized by government to pursue economic nationalism. Structuralist Theory According to this theory, the disparities among economies of countries are a result of previously derived power relations. This theory advocates an emphasis on an economy with its interrelations with other elements and its totality rather than segregated elements in isolation. For example, the world economies in essence are intrinsically linked resulting in many economic problems as well. International Monetary Fund (IMF) International Monetary Fund (IMF) was developed in 1945 as an international organization. The primary purposes of this organization are: Promoting global exchange and monetary stability Facilitating the balanced growth and expansion of i nternational trade Aiding the development of multilateral system for prevalent transactions Nelson, (n.d.) stated that during the devaluation of Brazilian Currency, though it looked financially sound but the conditions that IMF provided them to follow were difficult to implement. In order to deal with the issue of inflations, Brazil introduced fixed exchange rate. IMF imposed those conditions for two reasons. First, to keep interest rates high so that foreign investors keep their investment in Brazil. Second, these interest rates would decline the growth of thereby reducing overall demand. If the economic nationalist theory would be implemented then the country would have full control on its economy and would not require any other institutions’ condition. In contrast to that, liberal theory undermines the sovereignty of Brazilian country over its economy and urges to outsource its department to an external, more competent organization. As per structuralism theory, the reason due to which Brazil is compelled to fulfill conditions of IMF is its past relations with this organization. Corning (n.d.) stated that the rescue package provided by IMF were not promising. A week after the IMF bailout, the Korean financial market experienced decline of 27% against dollar. Consumers were in panic as businesses and banks paralyzed. It was also

Computer System Architecture of Buses

Computer System Architecture of Buses Abstract This report focuses on the computer system architecture of buses. The research is based on the buses which used by AMD K computer system. Those are includes bus characteristics, bus arbitration and bus topology. In bus characteristics, we had cover the bus width and bus speed, types of buses and bus lines, and also advantages and disadvantages of a bus to a network. In bus arbitration, there was include purpose of arbitration, how does the arbitration protocol work and multiplexing. Other else was the bus topology. In the end of the report, there was a summarize results which include why a bus hierarchy is required, how a bus hierarchy works and additional hardware circuitry required. Introduction This assignment is mainly explaining a fundamental architectural feature present in all computer system, buses. Buses have historically provided a flexible communications structure in computer systems. Furthermore, buses in computing are a digital communication mechanism that allows two or more functional units to transfer control signals or data. Most buses are designed for use inside a single computer system; some are used within a single integrated circuit. Many bus designs exist because a bus can be optimized for a specific purpose. For example, a memory bus is intended to interconnect a processor with a memory system and an I/O bus is intended to interconnect a processor with set of I/O devices. Furthermore, buses can be divided into two major groups based on their control. Those two groups are local buses and system buses. Various bus designs have been used in the PC, including ISA, EISA, Micro Channel, VL-bus and PCI. Other peripheral busses are NuBus, TURBOchannel, VMEbus, MULTIBUS and STD bus. Bus Width A bus is characterized by the amount of information that can be transmitted at once. It is call bus width. The amount expressed in bits, corresponds to the number of physical lines over which data is sent simultaneously. The term width is used to refer to the number of bits that a bus can transmit at once. Typical widths are 8, 16, 32, or 64 bits at a time. In other words, the bus width means the size of the entity that the bus sends data in one cycle. For example 32 bits, this means that the bus has 32 wires that are used for the transmission. (This may also be different, depending on the transmission protocol). Bus Speed Bus speed means how many bits or bytes (1 byte = 8 bits) is the bus able to send in a unit of time (typically second). For example for a computer network it could be 100 Mbs means 100 Megabits (12, 5 Megabytes) in a second. The bus speed is also defined by its frequency. It expressed in Hertz. Frequency means the number of data packets sent or received per second. Each time that data is sent or received is called a cycle. Besides, the bus speeds also commonly known as front side bus (FSB). It is shows how fast the components can communicate with each other. Faster bus speed means faster computer. You can easily see how a faster FSB helps your computer get more information from one place to the other. For example, if two computers are exactly the same in all ways except one has an FSB speed of 500 MHz and the other has an FSB of 1066 MHz, twice as much data will get through on the second computer compared to the first. This means your computer will get more work done in the same amount of time faster spreadsheet calculations, faster decoding of that movie, or smoother video games. To increase the bus speed you can either increase the bus width or the frequency of the transmission on the bus. The Different Types of Buses Local Buses A local bus is the simplest buses consist of set of wires. Within the central processing unit (CPU), local buses can generally be divided in three types. They are address buses, data buses or control buses. Address buses tend to be specialized in purpose and are usually unidirectional. It carries an address from the CPU to memory or I/O devices. Data buses tend to be more general in purpose and are bidirectional. It carries data between the CPU and memory or I/O devices. Control buses carry signals from the control unit to other components of the computer and back to control unit. System Buses Unlike local buses, system buses are independent functional components of many computers. Each system bus has its own control circuit, called a bus controller, and within each bus controller is an arbiter, which process requests to use the bus. The bus controller may be distributed among the devices that use the bus. Systems buses generally connect system components together, such as the CPU,I/O system and often the main-memory system, and designers often optimize system buses for transferring data between I/O devices and main-memory. A key distinction between system buses and local buses is that system buses tend to have well-documented and stable definitions, so that designers can attach a wide variety of devices to them. Local buses are processor-specific and not widely documented. They tend to be proprietary. Example of system buses are DEC UNIBUS and the Apple NuBus. Bus Lines The wires that comprise a bus are called lines. Four main categories of bus lines : Data lines Carry data from one place to another. Address lines Specify the recipient of data on the bus. Control lines Provide control for the synchronization and operation of the bus and the modules to which it is connected. Power lines Provide power to various components connected to the bus. Advantages / Disadvantages of a Bus to a Network Data bus networks have quite a few advantages compare the other network topologies such as point-to-point links in these applications. Generally, a data bus can make possible the interconnection of a set of terminals when the number of terminals is so large that interconnection through individual point-to-point links becomes unusable. Furthermore, a data bus topology can provide large configurationally flexibility. Terminals can be added to the network or moved to different locations without major revisions in the cabling layout. Both of these advantages are of particular importance in applications in which cable installation is the dominant system cost, for example in shipboard applications. Purpose of arbitration In a computer system, all the devices communicate with the other device are connected to the main board over a same bus. If two or more I/O (input and output) devices try to use the bus at the same time to access the main board, there will be a conflict arise. Therefore, bus arbitration is created is to resolve the problem. Bus arbiter is a circuit to coordinate the activities of devices request for memory transfer using the bus. The process that runs by bus arbiter is name as Bus Arbitration. It is to prevent two or more I/O devices initiating transfers at the same time. The bus arbitration mechanism is designed to allow high priority devices such as the processor and RAM get first access to the bus, while the other devices (disks, video cards, sound cards etc.) get lower priority, and often have to wait to access the bus. The prioritization is according numbered interrupts to priority systems. The lower the numbered interrupts will has the higher priority. On many systems, the CPU has interrupt 0. Therefore, CPU always goes first on the bus. Meanwhile, there are time slices provided over the bus. How does the arbitration protocol work The device that uses to allow for initiating data transfers on the bus is called as bus master. Therefore, only one bus master can exist at a time. When the bus master relinquished its control, the other device also can act as bus master. However, the process of transferring the bus mastership from one device to another device has to coordinate carefully to take account of the needs of various devices. As stated earlier, the bus arbitration has been design to use by high priority device. Therefore, scheduling function will be performs by bus arbiter. Bus arbiter can be part of the processer or separate unit that connected to bus. The diagram above show a basic arrangement example of processor contains the bus arbiter circuitry. In this case, the processor is act as the bus master. However in some cases, the other DMA (direct memory access) controller can gain the bus mastership. DMA controllers activate the Bus-request line, BR before it gain the bus mastership. The Signal of Bus- request line is transfer using the logical OR concept from the bus-request line to the other I/O devices. When the bus request is activated, the processor will activates the bus Grant signal, BG1, gives permission to the DMA controller use the bus when it become free. The signal is using a daisy-chain arrangement to connect all DMA controllers. Therefore, when DMA controller 1 request for the bus, it will block the propagation of the grant signal to other I/O device automatically. Else, it will assert BG2 to grant downstream. The bus master indicates all I/O devices that it is using the bus by activating another open collector line call as Bus Busy, BBSY. Therefore, a DMA controller need to wait for Bus busy to inactive after the Bus Grant signal send. In the situation, the DMA controller can assumes the bus mastership. Multiplexing Multiplexed bus is a type of bus structure which the number of signal lines represented by the bus is less than the number of bits of data, addresses, and control information being transferred between devices of the computer system. For example, if a multiplexed address bus use 8 signal lines to transmit 16 bits of address information. The information is transferred sequentially where the additional control line is being used for sequencing the transfer. In another example, the system represent a master control unit (MCU) connecting to one or more receiver-transmit unit (RTU) by a data bus. The MCU transmits a message to the RTU for comprising a synchronization pulse of known duration and successive time spaced timing signals separated by time duration T marking the boundaries of data bits to be transmitted from the RTU to the MCU. The RTU is including a clock pulse source which utilizes the synchronization pulse to determine the frequency of the clock pulse source in P pulses per duration T. The value P is used in conjunction with the timing signals to create properly timed data determining signals in the data bits. Point to point topology Point to point (PTP) is directly connects two nodes to together. Following is some example of using PTP to connect 2 nodes together. Two computers communicating via modems. A mainframe terminal communicating with a front end processor. A workstation communicating along a parallel cable to a scanner. In a point-to-point topology, all the devices are connected with a shared switch. The switch is different from the shared topology. Computational components that are connected using a point-to-point topology do not need to use any type of bus arbitration scheme. Instate, the shared switch breaks the continuous stream of data on the bus into data packets that are routed to the individual devices. Using this method, the shared switch able establishes point-to-point connections between the different devices. From an individual devices perspective, a connection has to be a private, direct, continuous connection to another device. The connection may comprise one or more two-way of serial-connections. By increasing the number of lanes of a connection, therefore the bandwidth of the connection can by increase. An example of point-to-point bus topology is the implementation in peripheral component interface expresses (PCI Express). PCI Express is a computer expansion card standard designed t o replace the older PCI, PCI-X, and AGP standards. It was introduced by Intel in 2004, PCIe is the latest standard for expansion cards that is available on mainstream personal computers. Multipoint Multipoint is a bus topologies that carries signals to several destinations. It is also known as multidrop bus (MDB) or broadcast bus. Multipoint bus usually requires addressing signals on the bus to identify the addressed destination. Example : Ethernet. It is also a computer bus in which all components are connected to same set of electrical wires. Summary From this assignment, we had classified out the type of buses which its basically grouped into four parts known as processor bus, cache bus, local I/O bus and standard I/O bus. Each of this is different as processor bus is the highest-level bus that the chipset uses to send information to and from the processor. While, cache bus used to accessing the system cache. At the same time, the local I/O bus is for connecting performance-critical peripherals to the memory, chipset, and processor such as video cards and disk storage devices. Example of local I/O bus is like Peripheral Component Interconnect Bus (PCI). Last would be the standard I/O bus which it used for slower peripherals such as modems while it also for compatibility with older devices. Bus hierarchy is required due to the lower level bus like local and standard I/O buses need to steps by steps sent the data to the upper levels of buses in order to allow users to retrieve or transfer the data from each particular memory to another. Hence, I consider them a hierarchy because each bus is to some extent further removed from the processor; each one connects to the level above it, integrating the various parts of the PC together. Each one is also generally slower than the one above it. As a conclusion, bus is generally designed for multiple devices to share the medium. Furthermore, additional hardware circuitry is needed because of that may have problems when two clients want to transmit at the same time on the same bus. Therefore, hardware like bus arbitration is needed to overcome this conflict. Conclusion As a conclusion, buses are actually helpful as its act as a vital medium in order to transferring data. Basically, buses connect different modules within the CPU and to memory and other I/O peripherals. Meanwhile, buses can also connect two different components at the same time through the usage of point-to-point or multipoint. Buses can carry data, address and control function as it could transmit the instructions of the users into the outputs. Buses are form in the combination of data line, address line, power line and control line. Then, buses and buses communicate through a medium called bridge. Further, we had identified the characteristics of the buses as it categorized into two categories. For bus speed, it covers the area for speed of transmitting data to another medium. While, bus width is the amount of data can be transferring. Besides, type of buses, pros and cons of bus and network and buses arbitration also included within our report. Lastly, we had also stated out the purposes of buses arbitration. Frequently Ask Question (FAQ) What is a bus? How to solve the conflict of different data is being transferring through the same bus but at different devices? What are the functions of buses? How to measure the speed of transferring or retrieving data from buses? How does buses connected to each other? How to increase the buses speed? Which method allows buses to connect 2 devices? References Jospeph.S, 1985, Multiplex bus system for controlling the transmission of data between a master control unit and a plurality of remotely located receiver-transmitter units [online], Available from http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4538262.html [Accessed 30 October 2009] What is a computer bus? [Online], Available World Wide Web : URL http://en.kioskea.net/contents/pc/bus.php3 [Accessed 26 Oct 2009] Shinichi, What is bus speed? [Online], Available World Wide Web : URL http://www.helium.com/items/986164-what-is-bus-speed [Accessed 26 Oct 2009] Multidrop bus [Online], Available World Wide Web : URL http://wikirank.com/en/Multidrop [Accessed 02 Nov 2009] Derwyn.J, 1984, Passive fiber optic data bus configurations [online], Available from http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4457581.html [Accessed 10 November 2009] System bus, online, Available from http://www.inetdaemon.com/tutorials/computers/hardware/mainboards/bus/[Accesed 30 October 2009] DAINTITH.J, 2004, multiplexed bus. A Dictionary of Computing [online], Available from http://www.encyclopedia.com [Accessed 03 November 2009] Hamacher.C, Vranesic.G, Zaky.G, 1996, computer organization In, 4th edition, McGraw-hill international editions, Singapore, 1996, pp186

Essay --

Valenzuela 1 Daniel Valenzuela Professor Fairweather December 15, 2013 Philosophy 101 Value and Meaning Nozick’s has a couple ways in defining value and meaning while both are somewhat similar to each other. By defining value, Nozick introduces intrinsic value which states that other kinds of value exist by their relation (Nozick, pg 162). Also, while defining value, there are a couple of different specific characteristics, such as, organic unity, which means ‘unity in diversity’. Nozick defines meaning by stating that meaning cannot be gained with something that is completely worthless (Nozick, pg 167). By having value and meaning accustomed in my life, I can see my growth and development along with having special value with health, family, and friendship. I could make drastic changes in my life to make it more meaningful and to have a much better value. While having a better value and meaningful life, this shows how much happier I can be along my life. Nozick states that when something has intrinsic value, its organic Valenzuela 2 unity is its value (Nozick, pg 164). There can be many different specific characteristics in describing value, but the one that really does is organic unity, this shows a major dimension that controls most of the value. Also, according to Nozick, â€Å"...a resultant organic unity depends upon two things, the degree of diversity and the degree of unity to which that diversity is brought† (pg 164). With this said, the different varieties of diversity, the harder it is to bring unity. Also, in order to have a special value in our lives and activities that we cherish, we want the highest degree of organic unity. By describing this, Nozick states, â€Å"We want to encompass a diversity of traits and phenomen... ...myself to receive a better outcome. Now, knowing that in order to be successful and achieve happiness, you’re going to have some road bumps and sometimes even fail. However, it’s not about failing, its about how you bounce back to see if you could achieve it again or come back stronger. By having this asset, this teaches me the value and meaning of life. In conclusion, Nozick defines value with organic unity and then states that meaning is the grand scheme of things. Arguments and explanations that Nozick interprets that shows the definition of meaning and value actually makes a lot of sense due to the analogies being used and the understandable way he writes it. All in all, by having a valuable and meaningful life, true happiness will be achieved. Citation Nozick, Robert. The Examined Life: Philosophical Meditations. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall Essay

The movie â€Å"Forgetting Sarah Marshall† is a successful example of comedy. It was theoretical released on April 18, 2008. The film was brought together by a group of well acted performers and was very famous for perfectly combining the hilarious performances and the laughter together. I think that a successful comedy movie has to have these important factors. First, it needs to be performed with the perfect sounds elements such as the background music and the songs in the movie; second, the movie should be brought by some famous figures and directors, which were well-known in the comedy industry to make sure it will have a great hit this time; third, there should be a lot of stupid scenes with nonsense in the movie that will make people laugh their heads off. The movie â€Å"Forgetting Sarah Marshall† won the Golden Trailer Award for Wild Posts in the year 2008 and was nominated for 6 different awards such as the Golden Trailer Award Best Comedy, and Teen Choice Comedy Awards. The film is directed by the famous Nicholas Stoller and was written by Jason Segal. The movie was a successful hit and was well know among the teen’s group as well as the adults group. The main character of the movie; Peter, he had the most perfect life that all man wished for; which is dating the most famous and the sexiest TV star of the show Crime Scene, Scene of the Crime. But an awful break up which was brought up by now his ex-girl friend, TV star Sarah Marshall; Peter felt like he needs to get away from his life and forget everything about Sarah, so he decided to go to Hawaii for a vacation. The problem is Peter’s ex-girl friend is also on a trip to Hawaii with his new boyfriend; Snow. Peter had to learn to forget the past, stop being a baby, and finally become a man. In the movie, Peter is a sound effect editor for his ex-girlfriend’s TV show; Crime Scene, Scene of the Crime, he was suppose to do dark and ominous music for the background, after he broke up with Sarah, he was playing lively music for the show, which was a perfect part with sarcastic and dark humor in it. The movie cleverly blends together his act with his music talents. Such as the Dracula puppet song that he sang in front of a crowd of strangers that has no idea what he is doing, as soon as he is finished with the Dracula song; the awkward situation that everyone was in total silence was amusing and made the audience want to laugh without a reason. When Sarah Marshall’s new boy friend went on stage and sang her the song â€Å"Inside You†, with the ridicules body movements that he did with the song, the audiences are usually stunned at first, but as we watch it further, it definitely leads to full of laughter. A powerful comedy should be brought together by a group of well known figures in the comedy industry. â€Å"Forgetting Sarah Marshall† is a perfect example of a good comedy because it was produced by four producers, which they were all very famous for being in the comedy business for so long. The exclusive producer Richard Vane was also the producer of Last Holiday (2004), Rodney Rothman who was also the producer for Help Me Help You (2006), and Judd Apatow who was the actor in Pineapple Express (2008). Most importantly, Producer Shauna Robertson. She was the producer for many previous comedy great hits; such as the Pineapple Express (2008), Knocked Up (2007), The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005) and Meet the Parents (2000). Jason Segal which was the writer of the film was also the leading actor of the movie. Actress Kristen Bell from the famous TV show Gossip Girl also took part in the movie, as well as Mila Kunis who was the sound for Meg Griffin for Family Guy and Bill Hader from Knocked up. With this impressive group of producers and performers, people will surge into the movie theater as soon as the film is released in the theaters. The most important element for a comedy is it has to have some scene that came out of nowhere and was totally stupid with nonsense. It is very important for a comedy, because people usually watch comedies when they don’t want to think about things and just want to enjoy the movie; otherwise there is no point of watching it. â€Å"Forgetting Sarah Marshall† is a perfect example because it is filled with nonsense. After breaking up with Sarah, Peter Felt like that he needs to have sex with different women just because his ex-girlfriend is having sex with another guy. After having a one night stand with a women that he barely even known, Peter cried in front of her and was acting totally out of ordinary. Also when the chief invite him to go and prepare dinner with him, they end up chasing a pig and Peter had to kill the pig with his bare hands. Scene in the movie shows much different nonsense that will usually make people laugh from their heart. The movie was loved widely all over the world, but there are still a lot of people who didn’t like the movie â€Å"Forgetting Sarah Marshall†. A lot of professionals’ movie critics didn’t like the movie because they think that the contents are â€Å"totally forgettable† or they think that â€Å"it is hard to like a character in the movie, when his own movie makes fun of himself. † I disagree with these critics, because there are many scenes in movie that people will not forget after that watched it, and a comedy are usually funny because the main characters were made fun of, either by himself or the other characters in the movie. That is what usually makes a movie a great hit of comedies. Just like what I previously mentioned, â€Å"forgetting Sarah Marshall† includes the perfect factors of sound element, was performed and brought together by a power group of people in the comedy industries, it also includes many stupid senses that people will not forget and will be talking about it among everyone who have watched the movie. This film is a great example of a comedy, and it is only for you to watch it and find out for yourself.

Ecofeminism in the 21st Century Essay

Ecofeminism in the Twenty-First Century. by Susan Buckingham Introduction Since ‘ecofeminism’ was developed as a concept in the 1970s (1), there have been, arguably, major policy shifts in the fields of gender (in)equality and environmental sustainability. Thus a consideration of the achievements of, and work outstanding for, ecological feminism is warranted. In this paper, I will assess the changing policy landscape to explore the extent to which this has structurally altered gender inequalities and societies’ treatment of the environment, and the imbrication of these wo processes. In order to do so, I will look at the rising profile of gender mainstreaming at the international, European Union (2) and European national level; the application of the ‘feminism’ debate to environmental concerns; and the shifting of the ‘radical edge’ of ecofeminism, to explore future possible trajectories (see, for example, Plumwood 2003; Seager 2003). To some extent, I will suggest that the transformation of policy and development rhetoric to include gender, as distinct from women’s issues (itself, arguably, a ‘post-feminist’ dilution of women’s equality), masks fundamental attachment to ‘business-as-usual’, where social roles, pay differentials, political representation and environmental degradation remain little changed. However, there is, I argue, sufficient evidence to identify the influence of ecofeminist thinking on major policy initiatives concerning the relationship between women, men and environment at a variety of scales. The central question of this paper, then, is whether ecofeminism (as a distinct discourse, or as an amalgam of feminism and environmentalism constructed in different times and places in different ways) has hanged the way in which Western society articulates the relationship between men, women and the environment. This, of course, is a problematic and speculative exercise and will follow from an analysis of how discourse and practice themselves have changed. This paper will consider key changes to gender equality as it is linked to environmental sustainability, and explore how women’s/feminists’ interests have helped to shape the environmental debate in the past decade. I will try to unpick dominant discourses which, on the one hand, are beginning to ‘naturalize’ (some ould say neutralize) environmental concerns (where the terms sustainable development and environmental sustainability are common currency but poorly understood to the point of being anodyne), but on the other hand are marginalizing feminism, to examine the impact of this on ‘ecofeminism’. Finally, I will explore the territory of ecofeminism’s leading/radical edge to speculate on where this may take both conceptual understanding and policy in the future. First, however, to put this discussion into context, I will briefly review ecofeminist arguments to illustrate their ange, before focusing on the constructivist approach, which has had the most traction in gender/environment debates in the last two decades. Ecofeminist approaches It is tempting to use a retrospective to try to impose some sort of order on past intellectual activity, and what I am attempting to do first in this article is to explore whether there is an intellectual trajectory, through a not necessarily coherent body of thinking and writing on gender and environment in the late twentieth century. In teasing out the possible relationship between women’s position, gender anage the environment, ecofeminist writers in the 1970s and 1980s explored the relative importance of essentialism and social construction in these relationships. The social constructivist analyses (which tended to dominate French and British writing; see, for example, Mellor 1992) drew from the Marxist and social feminist literature to show how women’s position in society (as, for example, carers of children and other vulnerable family members, domestic workers, and low paid/status workers) derived from prevailing social and economic structures, which exposed them to a particular set of environmental incivilities. The specifically ecofeminist argument here proposed that, since the same social and economic structures also produced wide-scale environmental damage, then women could, in some sense, ‘share’ this experience and were therefore better placed to argue on nature’s behalf. The essentialist argument that underpinned some of the North American and Australian analyses proposed that women had a particular relationship with nature by virtue of their biology (predominantly as actual or potential child bearers) and that this proximity to nature qualified them to speak more eloquently on nature’s behalf see, for example, Spretnak 1989; Daly 1978). Different authors drew on each position to different degrees, and much of the critique of ecofeminism (well articulated in Biehl 1991) over the past 20 years has focused on the problems perceived with essentialism, and on the validity of a shared experience between the human and non-human. Dennis Smith (2001), in discussing the role of gender in peace and conflict, has argued that essentialism is often used as a tool to mobilize a group around a perceived characteristic which sets it apart, and, certainly, cultural ecofeminism (prioritizing essentialist arguments) did so. Its strength was to demonstrate the possibility of a way of thinking and being which reversed the normal hierarchy in which men stood at the peak; however, little academic feminist environmental thinking is currently framed in this way.