Encyclopedia

Eco-evolution The term eco-evolution was coined by Donella Meadows to describe "the power to add, change, evolve, or self-organize system structure" which she described as the fourth most powerful way to intervene in a system:
Eco-imperialism Eco-imperialism refers the forceful imposition of western environmental views on developing countries. The degree to which this imposition actually occurs is a topic of debate, as is whether such imposition (if it occurs) would be ethically justifiable.
Eco-industrial park An eco-industrial park (EIP) is a type of industrial park in which businesses cooperate with each other and with the local community in an attempt to reduce waste, efficiently share resources (such as information, materials, water, energy, infrastructure, and natural resources), and produce sustainable development, with the intention of increasing economic gains and improving environmental quality.
Eco-marathon The Eco-Marathon is an annual competition sponsored by Shell, in which vehicles take fuel efficiency to the extreme -- the current record is 12,665 miles per gallon (MPG). (In contrast, the most efficient diesel passenger cars achieve 60 MPG, and some high-powered sportscars achieve as little as 8 MPG.
Eco-Management and Audit Scheme The Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) is the EU voluntary instrument which acknowledges organisations that improve their [environmental performance] on a continuous basis. EMAS registered organisations are legally compliant, run an environmental management system and report on their environmental performance through the publication of an independently verified environmental statement.
Eco-socialism Eco-socialism or Green socialism is an ideology fusing Green movement values with socialism. Eco-socialists believe that capitalism is inherently harmful to society and the environment due to waste, pollution, and overconsumption.
Eco-somatics Eco-somatics is a term used by movement artist and dance movement therapist Sandra Reeve in her Move Into Life work. It describes an ecological approach to the body-mind in movement and starts always from movement rather than from a static view.
Eco-sufficiency Eco-sufficiency requires a reduction of the level of production/consumption in those parts of the world with the highest standards of living beyond reducing the use of natural resources as well as waste and emissions per unit of production/consumption (=decoupling/delinking). Given a very loose relation in rich countries between material wealth, GDP and human well-being, this might be possible even without reducing the latter, while, for example, increasing leisure and non-material activities for well-being.
Eco-terrorism The term eco-terrorism is a neologism used to describe threats and/or acts of violence (both against people and against property), sabotage, vandalism, property damage and intimidation committed in the name of environmentalism. The FBI's Domestic Terrorism Section defines eco-terrorism as "the use or threatened use of violence of a criminal nature against innocent victims or property by an environmentally-oriented, subnational group for environmental-political reasons, or aimed at an audience beyond the target, often of a symbolic nature.
Eco-warrior The term eco-warrior is sometimes a self description for environmental activist that adopts a "hands-on" effort to save or salvage a plot of land, or to advance some ecological ideology. In the UK it was the media that coined the term in the 90s, a label that many people actively taking ecological direct action resisted, for philosophical reasons.
Ecobank Ecobank is an African banking company serving 13 countries in West Africa and Central Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo. The bank has over 100 branches in all.
EcoBot EcoBot is short for Ecological Robot and it refers to a class of energetically autonomous robots that can remain self-sustainable by collecting their energy from (mostly) waste in the environment. The only by-product from this process is carbon dioxide, which would have been produced from biodegradation in the first place.
Ecocentrism Ecocentrism is a philosophy that recognizes that the Ecosphere, rather than any individual organism, is the source and support of all life and as such advises a holistic and eco-centric approach to government, industry, and individual.in theory every educated person knows that the world is more than people, resources, and a vague environment to be protected, the very fact of seeing it as one spherical air-water-land system gives it a new and different reality.
Ecocide Ecocide is the killing of an ecosystem, which includes consuming it and using it to feed some other process or system - ecophagy. There are however ways to render an ecosystem not viable that do not require consuming or crushing all of its parts.
Ecocities The idea of Ecocities is a new approach toward sustainable living. Environmentalists used to believe that city living was pollutive and destructive to the environment because of the amount of sewage, trash, and unsanitary conditions created and dumped onto the environment.
Ecocline An ecocline refers to the gradual changes in species abundance along a gradient of environmental factors. It allows the study of the way species populations and plant assemblage characteristics change in response to, or in occurrence with, environmental gradients.
Ecocomposition Ecocomposition is a way of looking at literacy using the concepts from ecology. It is a post-process theory of writing instruction that tries to account for factors beyond hierarchically defined goals within social settings.
Ecocriticism Ecocriticism began in the mid-1990s as the study of the relationship between literature and the natural environment. Ecocriticism was heralded by the publication of two seminal works, both published in 1996: The Ecocriticism Reader, edited by Cheryll Glotfelty and Harold Fromm, and The Environmental Imagination, by Lawrence Buell.
Ecodesign Ecodesign is an approach to design of a product with special consideration for the environmental impacts of the product during its whole lifecycle. In a life cycle assessment the life cycle of a product is usually divided into procurement, manufacture, use and disposal.
Ecofeminism Ecofeminism is a social and political movement which unites environmentalism and feminism, with some currents linking deep ecology and feminism. Ecofeminists argue that a relationship exists between the oppression of women and the degradation of nature, and explore the intersectionality between sexism, the domination of nature, racism, speciesism, and other characteristics of social inequality.
Ecoforestry Ecoforestry is forestry that emphasizes holistic practices which strive to protect and restore ecosystems1 instead of traditional forestry that maximizes economic productivity. Destructive practices like clearcutting, high grading, and pesticides are not permitted.
Ecohydrology Ecohydrology is a sub-discipline of hydrology that focuses on ecological processes involved in the hydrological cycle. These processes generally occur within the soil and plant foliage, and so emphasis is put on transpiration and thermodynamic energy balance at the land surface.
EcoHealth EcoHealth is an emerging field of study researching how changes in the earth’s ecosystems are impacting human health. EcoHealth examines changes in the biological, physical, social and economic environments and relates these changes to impacts upon human health.
EcoHomes EcoHomes is an environmental rating scheme for homes in the United Kingdom. It is the domestic version of the Building Research Establishment's Environmental Assessment Method BREEAM, which can also be applied to a variety of non-residential buildings.
Ecoinformatics Ecoinformatics is the science of information (Informatics) in Ecology and Environmental science. It aims to a synthesis of the sciences of the environment and of information that defines the entities and processes of natural systems with a language that both humans and computers can process.
Ecolabel Ecolabel is a labelling system for consumer products (including foods) that are made in fashion to avoid detrimental effects on the environment. Usually both the precautionary principle and the substitution principle are used when defining the rules for what products can be ecolabelled.
Ecole de Mime Corporel Dramatique The Ecole de Mime Corporel Dramatique is a theatre school in London, England. It was founded in Paris by the last assistants of Etienne Decroux, Steven Wasson and Corinne Soum, who continue to teach and produce plays with their company, the Theatre de l'Ange Fou.
Ecole des Ursulines, Quebec Known in English as the School of the Ursulines , the Ecole des Ursulines is among North America's oldest schools. Still operating as a private girls school, it was founded in 1639 by French nun Marie de l'Incarnation and a laywoman named Madame de la Peltrie.
Ecole Française de Belgrade Ecole Française de Belgrade (Serbian: Француска Школа у Београду) is an international French school in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is composed of a preschool (maternelle), primary school (école primaire), junior high (collège), and high school (lycée).
Ecolect An ecolect is a language variety unique to a household (from the Greek eco (oikos) for house, as in economy or ecology, and lect for language). An ecolect probably evolves from an idiolect, which is individual specific, when other household members adopt that individual's unique words and phrases, that are not in use in surrounding households or the wider community.
Ecolinguistics Ecolinguistics emerged in the 1990’s as a new paradigm of linguistic research which took into account not only the social context in which language is embedded, but also the ecological context in which societies are embedded. Michael Halliday's 1990 paper New ways of Meaning: the challenge to applied linguistics is often credited as a seminal work which provided the stimulus for linguists to consider the ecological context and consequences of language.
Ecolo Ecolo (which officially stands for Écologistes Confédérés pour l'organisation de luttes originales (English: Ecologists confederated for the organisation of original struggles), but in reality is a shorthand for "ecology" or "ecologist") is a French-speaking Belgian green political party in Wallonia, Brussels and the German-speaking Community of Belgium. It currently participates in the Brussels regional government.
Ecological anthropology Ecological anthropology deals with human-environmental (nature-culture) relationships over time and space. It investigates the ways that a population shapes its environment and the subsequent manners in which these relations form the population’s social, economic, and political life (Salzman and Attwood 1996:169).
Ecological collapse Ecological Collapse refers to a situation where an ecosystem suffers a drastic, if not permanent, reduction in carrying capacity for all organisms, often resulting in mass extinction. Usually, an ecological collapse can be precipitated by a disastrous event occurring on a small time scale, such as the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event which was an ecological collapse widely believed to be caused by an impact event.
Ecological correlation An ecological correlation is a correlation between two variables that are group means, in contrast to a correlation between two variables that describe individuals. For example, one might study the correlation between physical activity and weight among sixth-grade children.
Ecological economics Ecological economics is an approach to economics [rather than a branch of] economics that addresses the interdependence and co-evolution between human economies and natural ecosystems. Many ecological economists refer to it as a trans-discipline rather than a conventional discipline.
Ecological effects of biodiversity The diversity of species and genes in ecological communities affects the functioning of these communities. These ecological effects of biodiversity in turn affect both climate change through enhanced greenhouse gases, aerosols and loss of land cover, and biological diversity, causing a rapid loss of ecosystems and extinctions of species and local populations.
Ecological energetics Ecological energetics is the quantitative study of the flow of energy through ecological systems. It aims to uncover the principles which describe the propensity of such energy flows through the trophic, or 'energy availing' levels of ecological networks.
Ecological engineering Ecological Engineering is the emerging field of the use of ecological processes within natural or constructed imitation of natural systems to achieve engineering goals. It has also been described as "the design of sustainable ecosystems that integrate human society with its natural environment for the benefit of both" (Mitsch, 1998)
Ecological engineering methods Ecological Engineering Methods (also known as Biological Engineering or ECO-Engineering) is when researchers try to tap biologically-based energy sources. Some projects include engineering new organisms that produce hydrogen from water and sunlight in environmentally friendly ways with no waste products, and transforming the way man interacts with the environment.
Ecological facilitation Facilitation describes species interactions that benefit at least one of the participants and cause harm to neither (Stachowicz 2001). Facilitations can be categorized as mutualisms, in which both species benefit, or commensalisms, in which one species benefits and the other is unaffected.
Ecological fallacy The ecological fallacy is a widely recognised error in the interpretation of statistical data, whereby inferences about the nature of individuals are based solely upon aggregate statistics collected for the group to which those individuals belong. This fallacy assumes that all members of a group exhibit characteristics of the group at large.
Ecological footprint The phrase "ecological footprint" is a metaphor used to depict the amount of land and water area a human population would hypothetically need to provide the resources required to support itself and to absorb its wastes, given prevailing technology. The term was first coined in 1992 by Canadian ecologist and professor at the University of British Columbia, William Rees.
Ecological funeral An ecological funeral, also known as promession, is a method for allowing the body of the deceased to decompose in an environmentally-friendly way. It was invented and patented in 1999 by the Swedish biologist Susanne Wiigh-Mäsak.
Ecological Funeral Ecological burial is a method of disposing of a corpse that produces less environmental disruption than a conventional burial. One particular method is a sequence of deep-freezing, pulverisation by vibration, freeze-drying, removing metals, and burying the resulting powder, which has 30% of the body mass.
Ecological genetics Ecological genetics is the study of genetics on an ecological scale. While molecular genetics studies the structure and function of genes at a molecular level, ecological genetics (and the related field of population genetics) studies wild populations of organisms.
Ecological health Ecological health or ecological integrity or ecological damage is used to refer to symptoms of an ecosystem's pending loss of carrying capacity, its ability to perform nature's services, or a pending ecocide, due to cumulative causes such as pollution. The term health is intended to evoke human environmental health concerns, which are often closely related (but as a part of medicine not ecology).
Ecological humanities The ecological humanities are a recent development by Deborah Bird Rose and colleagues in the humanities which has grown out of the concerns of radical ecocentric political theory. The aim of the ecological humanities is to bridge the divides between the sciences and the humanities, and between Western, Eastern and Indigenous ways of knowing nature.
Ecological imperialism Ecological Imperialism is, quite simply, the idea that the European conquest of the New World was more a matter of the introduced plants, animals, and diseases that accompanied the Europeans than their technology or weaponry. The idea was popularized in Alfred Crosby's 1986 book Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900 in which he postulates that European expansion and imperialism in the New World can be explained predominantly by ecological factors.
Ecological indicator Ecological indicators are used to communicate information about ecosystems and the impact human activity has on ecosystems to groups such as the public or government policy makers. Ecosystems are complex and ecological indicators can help describe them in simpler terms that can be understood and used by non-scientists to make management decisions.
Ecological interface design Ecological interface design (EID) is an approach to interface design that was introduced specifically for complex sociotechnical, real-time, and dynamic systems. It has been applied in a variety of domains including process control (e.
Ecological Intelligent Design The Ecological Intelligent Design strategy of Michael Braungart, an ecological chemist, and Bill McDonough, an architect and designer, applies to both products and buildings. It is touted as a way to achieve better environmental management by simple distinctions instead of big "systems".
Ecological land classification Ecological land classification is defined as being a cartographical delineation of distinct ecological areas, identified by their geology, topography, soils, vegetation, climate conditions, living species, water resources, as well as anthropic factors. These factors are known to control or influence biotic composition and ecological processes.
Ecological model of competition The ecological model of competition is a reassessment of the nature of competition in the economy. Traditional economics models the economy on the principles of physics (force, equilibrium, inertia, momentum, and linear relationships).
Ecological modernization Ecological modernization is an optimistic, reform-oriented environmental discourse and school of environmental social science that has gained increasing attention among scholars and policymakers in the last several decades in Europe, North America, Japan, and elsewhere (Hajer, 1995; Redclift and Woodgate, 1997; Mol, 2001; Dickens, 2004). Proponents of ecological modernization assert that it is desirable and sometimes possible for societies to develop both economically and socially and at the same time conserve the environment.
Ecological niche In ecology, a niche is a term describing the relational position of a species or population in an ecosystem. More formally, the niche includes how a population responds to the abundance of its resources and enemies (e.
Ecological Postmodernism Ecological Postmodernism describes a system of social development that is a departure from the socialist and capitalist industrial systems. Ecological Postmodernism seeks the integration of a sustainable social ecology and natural ecology.
Ecological sanitation Ecological sanitation can be viewed as a three-step process dealing with human excreta: (1) Containment, (2) Sanitization, (3) Recycling. The objective is to protect human health and the environment while limiting the use of water in sanitation systems for hand (and anal) washing only and recycling nutrients to help reduce the need for artificial fertilizers in agriculture.
Ecological stability Ecological Stability can take on any connotation in a continuum ranging from resilience (returning quickly to a previous state) to constancy (lack of change) to persistence (simply not going extinct). The precise definition depends on the ecosystem in question, the variable or variables of interest, and the overall context.
Ecological stoichiometry Ecological stoichiometry considers how the balance of energy and elements affect and are affected by organisms and their interactions in ecosystems. Ecological stoichiometry has a long history in ecology with early references to the constraints of mass balance made by Liebig, Lotka, and Redfield.
Ecological succession Ecological succession, a fundamental concept in ecology, refers to more-or-less predictable and orderly changes in the composition or structure of an ecological community. Succession may be initiated either by formation of new, unoccupied habitat (e.
Ecological Systems Theory Ecological Systems Theory, also called "Development in Context" or "Human Ecology" theory, specifies four types of nested environmental systems, with bi-directional influences within and between the systems. The theory was developed by Urie Bronfenbrenner, generally regarded as one of the world's leading scholars in the field of developmental psychology.
Ecological validity Ecological validity is a form of validity in an experiment. In order for an experiment to possess ecological validity, the methods, materials and setting of the experiment must approximate the real-life situation that is under study.
Ecological validity (perception) The ecological validity of a cue in perception is the correlation between the cue (something an organism might be able to measure from the proximal stimulus) and a property of the world (some aspect of the distal stimulus). For example, the color of a banana is a cue that indicates whether the banana is ripe.
Ecological yield Ecological yield is the harvestable population growth of an ecosystem. It is most commonly measured in forestry - in fact sustainable forestry is defined as that which does not harvest more wood in a year than has grown in that year, within a given patch of forest.
Ecologics Ecologics ([Ikologiks]) is defined as a cumulative-progressive system (science) of philosophical thought or study into universal phenomenological knowledge; within the context of integrated dialectical, metaphysical, revolutionary transformational praxis. (Davis, 1977,1999).
Ecologist Party of Romania The Ecologist Party of Romania (Partidul Ecologist Român in Romanian) is a green political party in Romania without parliamentary representation. It was founded in March 2003 through a merger between several smaller green parties.
Ecology Ecology, Ĺ“cology or ecological science, is the scientific study of the distribution and abundance of living organisms and how the distribution and abundance are affected by interactions between the organisms and their environment. The environment of an organism includes both physical properties, which can be described as the sum of local abiotic factors such as insolation (sunlight), climate, and geology, as well as the other organisms that share its habitat.
Ecology (disciplines) Ecology is a broad biological science and can thus be divided into many sub-disciplines using various criteria. For example, one such categorization, based on overall complexity (from the least complex to the most), is:
Ecology block An ecology block is a large concrete block with a groove in the bottom face and a tongue on the top face to eliminate slippage when they are stacked. There is also a steel loop on the top face to facilitate lifting.
Ecology Flag (Australian) The Ecology flag (ECO flag) is a symbol for cultural and environmental change originated in the late 1990s when environmental activists (Eco warriors) campaigned against a gold mine at Timbarra Plateau, near Nimbin Australia.
Ecology movement The global ecology movement is one of several new social movements that emerged at the end of the sixties; as a values-driven social movement, it should be distinguished from the pre-existing science of ecology. The movement's growth has been stimulated by a widespread acknowledgement of an ecological crisis of our planet.
Ecology of Banksia The ecology of Banksia refers to all the relationships and interactions between the plant genus Banksia and its environment. Banksia has a number of adaptations that have so far enabled the genus to survive despite dry, nutrient-poor soil, low rates of seed set, high rates of seed predation and low rates of seedling survival.
Ecoluxury Phrase coined by the finnish women's fashion designer Camilla Norrback. The term refers to the fact that there is a new generation of ecologically aware consumers who value environment-friendliness highly without wanting to make compromises with design quality.
Econcern Econcern (founded 2000) is a holding company based in Utrecht, Netherlands. It owns the companies Ecofys, Evelop, Ecostream and Ecoventures, all of which are operating in the field of sustainable energy supply.
Econet Econet was Acorn's low-cost local area networking system, intended for use by schools and small businesses. Econet is rumoured to be an abbreviation of Economy Network, but Acorn were always careful to stress the Greek root, oikos, meaning "house".
Econfina River State Park Econfina River State Park is a 3,377 acres (14 km²) Florida State Park, located on the Gulf of Mexico at the mouth of the Econfina River. The address is 4384 Econfina River Road, Lamont, Florida, United States.
EconMult EconMult is a general fleet model to be used in fisheries modelling. EconMult has been developed since 1991 as a part of the Multispecies management programme by the Norwegian Research Council at the Norwegian College of Fishery Science (University of Tromsø, Norway).
Econnect Econnect is a Czech non-profit organisation. It works to "help other non-profit organisations from the Czech Republic to use electronic communication systems and to have easy access to information technology.
Econofoods Econofoods is a chain of grocery stores located in Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Wyoming. Econofoods is part of the Nash Finch Company, and is one of several supermarket brands operated by the company.
Econometric model Econometric models are used by economists to find standard relationships among aspects of the macroeconomy and use those relationships to predict the effects of certain events (like government policies) on inflation, unemployment, growth, etc... Econometric models generally have a short-run aggregate supply component with fixed prices, and aggregate demand portion, and a potential output component.
Econometric Society The Econometric Society, an International Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory in its Relation with Statistics and Mathematics was founded on December 29, 1930 at the Stalton Hotel in Cleveland, Ohio.
Economic activism Economic activism involves using economic power for change. Both conservative and liberal groups use economic activism to boycott companies and organizations that do not agree with their particular political, religious, or social values.
Economic aid to Maldives Before the 1980s, the Maldives received limited assistance from UN specialized agencies. Much of the external help came from Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the UAE, for use on an ad hoc basis rather than as part of comprehensive development plan.
Economic alchemy Paul Zane Pilzer coined the term 'Economic Alchemy' to describe a new paradigm of economics wherein resources are seen as unlimited, and the most powerful means of ecomonic expansion and human advancement are seen as a function of the development, implementation and distribution of new technologies.
Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa The Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (or CEMAC from its name in French, Communauté Économique et Monétaire de l'Afrique Centrale) is an organization of states of Central Africa established to promote economic integration among countries that share a common currency, the CFA franc.
Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union In economics, a monetary union is a situation where several countries have agreed to share a single currency among them. The European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) consists of three stages coordinating economic policy and culminating with the adoption of the euro, the EU's single currency.
Economic and political boycotts of Israel Boycotts of Israel are a series of economic and political campaigns against the State of Israel in the course of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Arab boycotts of the region's Jewish population began decades before Israel's founding as a state and include an often-violated official boycott by the Arab League.
Economic and public affairs Economic and Public Affairs (EPA) is a subject taught in the junior forms of most secondary schools in Hong Kong, either as a separate subject or as a component of combined humanities or combined social studies. The subject is concerned with helping students to develop a basic understanding of economic and political issues, of the economic and political foundations of Hong Kong society, and of their responsibilities and rights as citizens and consumers.
Economic and Philosophic Science Review The Economic and Philosophic Science Review is a British socialist newspaper founded by Royston Bull, formerly a leading member of the Workers Revolutionary Party and industrial correspondent for The Scotsman newspaper.
Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 Economic & Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 (also referred to as The Paris Manuscripts) are a series of notes written between April and August 1844 by Karl Marx. Not published by Marx during his lifetime, they were first released in 1932 by researchers in the Soviet Union.
Economic and Social Committee The European Union's Economic and Social Committee is the consultative assembly of European "social and economic partners". This phrase refers mainly to representatives of business, employers and trade unions.
Economic and Social Research Council The Economic and Social Research Council (most commonly ESRC) is one of the eight Research Councils in the United Kingdom. It provides funding and support for research and training work in social and economic issues.
Economic and Social Research Institute The Economic and Social Research Institute in Ireland produces research focusing on Ireland's economic and social development in order to inform policy-making and societal understanding. The institute has played a role in national debates since the 1960s, such as joining the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union, undertaking the National Development Plan, and initiating policies to combat poverty.
Economic and Specialist Crime Economic and Specialist Crime is an Operational Command Unit of London's Metropolitan Police Service which deals with fraud investigation and prevention, as well as a wide range of other crimes which require special knowledge and training to investigate.
Economic anthropology Economic anthropology is an approach to the central questions of anthropology through the lens of economics. Thus, it is similar to evolutionary psychology in that it attempts to use one scientific discipline to explain another.
Economic Analysis and Business Facilitation Unit The Economic Analysis and Business Facilitation Unit (EABFU) was formed under the Financial Secretary’s Office on 1 June 2004, when the HKSAR Government merged the Economic Analysis Division under the Financial Services Branch of the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau and the Business Facilitation Division under the Commerce and Industry Branch of the Commerce, Industry and Technology Bureau.
Economic bubble An economic bubble (sometimes referred to as a "market bubble", a "financial bubble", or a "speculative mania") refers to a market condition in which the prices of commodities or asset classes increase to absurd or unsustainable levels (that no longer reflect utility of usage and purchasing power). It occurs when speculation in the underlying asset causes the price to increase, thus encouraging even more speculation.
Economic calendar Economic calendar is a type of calendar that is intended to inform financiers and traders about the scheduled major economic numbers (like CPI, PMI, Jobless Claims), government reports and speeches of the most influential persons of the financial world. Economic calendars are usually issued on a weekly basis.
Economic conscription Economic conscription is a term used to describe mechanisms for recruitment of personnel for the armed forces through the use of economic conditions. The term is most commonly used to refer to a situation in which certain geographical areas within a country are neglected in terms of their economic development, leading to a situation where a high proportion of young people consider a career within the armed forces as an attractive career choice; the premise is that if these areas enjoyed favourable conditions, this would not be the case, and that governments using this mechanism know this, and choose not to change the situation.

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