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Conventional Understandings (conventional + understanding)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	80%

Selected Abstracts

Resolving the enigma of early coastal settlement in the Hawaiian Islands: The stratigraphic sequence of the Wainiha Beach Site in Kaua'i

GEOARCHAEOLOGY: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 2 2004
Mike T. Carson
Archaeological excavation has documented stratified cultural deposits at the Wainiha Beach Site in Kaua'i (Hawaiian Islands), beginning with the occupation of a residential structure dated around A.D. 1030,1400. After about A.D. 1400, the excavated area contains abundant evidence of widespread repeated temporary activities ending in the post-Contact era (post-A.D. 1778). The presence of an early permanent residence followed by a later period of temporary activities opposes conventional understanding of a trend from temporary to permanent occupation in similar sites in the Hawaiian Islands. The complete stratigraphic sequence is disclosed here, with reference to formation processes and depositional context of eight major strata documented in a controlled excavation 0.95 m deep. Various human activities (such as digging pits, trampling, etc.) and periodic natural high-energy events (such as tsunami) appear to have altered the upper portions of underlying deposits. Large sections of the earliest human occupation layer were obliterated, and successive episodes of short-lived activities created numerous inconsistencies in the stratigraphy. These results have important implications for interpreting the cultural sequence not only at Wainiha but also at other rather enigmatic beach sites in the Hawaiian Islands and elsewhere. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]

Another Meditation on Das Erdbeben in Chili: Heinrich von Kleist and the Work of the Reader,

THE GERMAN QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2008
Amanda Norton
Heinrich von Kleist's Das Erdbeben in Chili (1807) has fascinated readers for two centuries. The tale of Josephe, Jeronimo, and the tiny Philipp combines many elements,a love affair, an illegitimate child, a natural disaster, a massacre outside a house of God,of tremendous storytelling. This article reconsiders the conventional understanding of some parts of this story. It focuses in particular on Kleist's presentation of certain constellations of family members and suggests that the family structure is not as sound as it may seem. By examining some of the mysterious statements and the interactions among the central characters in the story, this article highlights the interpretive challenge that the reader of Das Erdbeben faces. It seeks further to illuminate more generally connections among narration, truth and the act of reading. [source]

The Quest for Distinction: A Reappraisal of the Rural Labor Process in Kheda District (Gujarat), India,

ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, Issue 2 2000
Vinay Gidwani
Abstract: In this article I examine how the rural labor process is constitutive of social identity, particularly status, by harnessing empirical evidence from Kheda District, Gujarat, and other parts of India. Emphasis is on the labor practices of the dominant Lewa Patel caste, and only secondarily on the practices of other caste groups. My central claim is that the labor process is a primary arena in which the quest for social distinction occurs and that the primary source of distinction is the ability to withdraw family labor power from the commoditized labor circuit. In this paper I seek to deepen conventional understandings of the labor process within economic geography, agrarian studies, and mainstream economics. [source]

Re-founding Representation: Wider, Broader, Closer, Deeper

POLITICAL STUDIES REVIEW, Issue 2 2010
Lucy Taylor
This article challenges conventional understandings and methodologies associated with the study of political representation. It imagines representation as a power relationship and shifts attention from elections to a closer examination of the interface between representatives and those they claim to represent. It argues for the need to make representation studies wider, moving our focus to study polities beyond the confines of prosperous, established democracies. Secondly, we should broaden our understanding of representation agents in two ways. We should consider how non-voters are represented and we should include diverse forms of social organisations, problematising relationships of representation within these groups and taking their political-representational role seriously. Thirdly, we should move closer, conducting not only macro-level analyses but also micro-level studies, exploring representation among and between individuals and groups in order to understand the complex relationships, motives and dynamics of power at work. Finally we need to go deeper, looking at our own subject positions as scholars critically and challenging the neutrality of the ideas and assumptions that we use as intellectual tools. Moreover, we should promote deeper relationships of representation, reconnecting it to ideas and practices of participation, and promoting the role of accountability in ,closing the loop' and enhancing democracy. [source]

A Precautionary Approach to Foreign Policy?

BRITISH JOURNAL OF POLITICS & INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, Issue 3 2006
A Preliminary Analysis of Tony Blair's Speeches on Iraq
This article examines the proposition put forward in a BBC documentary concerning ,war on terror' policies in recent decades that the British prime minister embraced the precautionary principle over his decision to go to war with Iraq. We argue that the conventional understandings of precaution that have been developed in the environmental arena do not translate well into the field of foreign policy. Our argument is buttressed by a content analysis of Tony Blair's speeches prior to the Iraq conflict of 2003. The analysis focuses on the ways the prime minister justified his decision to participate in the war in Iraq to the UK electorate. We conclude that, although understandings of precaution, particularly the ,strong' precautionary principle, do have problems when applied to this particular issue, and that the war was mainly based on a traditional ,sound science' foreign policy paradigm, the novel idea of using weaker forms of the precautionary principle in foreign policy is nevertheless intriguing, and warrants further research. [source]