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Contemporary Form (contemporary + form)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences100%

Selected Abstracts

A high-resolution pollen and geochemical analysis of late Holocene human impact and vegetation history in southern Cumbria, England,

JOURNAL OF QUATERNARY SCIENCE, Issue 3 2009
Paul M. V. Coombes
Abstract The historic era, which in Cumbria begins with the Roman invasion of AD 71, is a frequently neglected period in palaeoecological research, but its study can bring benefits in improving knowledge of landscape history and in understanding the significance and limitations of palaeoecological records. Pollen and geochemical data are presented for late Holocene records from Deer Dyke and Hulleter Mosses in southern Cumbria. The records show initially low levels of anthropogenic impact, followed by a phase of forest clearance and mixed agriculture from the 7th to 11th centuries AD. The timing of these clearances suggests that they were initially Anglo-Saxon in origin, rather than Norse. Further clearances in the 16th century AD are interpreted as a response to monastic dissolution and late Tudor population pressures; the landscapes reached their contemporary form following extensive clearances in the 17th century AD. Silicon and titanium concentrations at Deer Dyke Moss were used to reconstruct past levels of atmospheric dust loading, which is broadly related to soil erosion. Geochemical influx was found to peak during periods of landscape transition rather than from established land use. This relationship with pollen data is thought to reflect the predominantly low levels of anthropogenic impact in the region, which changes as substantial woodland clearances during the 16th century AD and continuous land use pressure since then have greatly increased the supply of airborne dust. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

The Politics of Connectivity: The Role of Big Business in UK Education Technology Policy

POLICY STUDIES JOURNAL, Issue 4 2001
Neil Selwyn
Since 1997, the United Kingdom (UK) government has embarked upon a series of education policy initiatives based around the increased role of private interests in both policy formulation and implementation. This article takes a detailed look at private sector involvement in education policymaking and implementation using the current "National Grid for Learning" (NGfL) technology policy drive as a contemporary form. Based on a series of in-depth interviews with key public and private actors in the NGfL the article covers the role of business in the origins, policy formation, and eventual implementation of the initiative. It concludes by discussing the function big business can be said to be playing in UK education policy and the bearing this may have on the long-term sustainability and effectiveness of such policies. [source]

From Warrior to Wife: Cultural Transformation in the Gamo Highlands of Ethiopia

THE JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, Issue 1 2002
Dena Freeman
This article focuses on cultural transformation in the Gamo Highlands of Ethiopia and seeks to explain the way in which certain initiation rituals have transformed over time. The article begins by considering two structural variants of the initiation ritual that exist in two neighbouring communities, Doko Gembela and Doko Masho, and argues that one is an historical transformation of the other. After comparing the contemporary form of these two variants, the article then moves to consider the macro-level forces of change that have impinged on the two communities over the past two hundred years or so. It then seeks to bring ethnography and history together by considering how the macro-level changes might have been experienced in the interpersonal relations of individuals. It explores the new types of situations that would have arisen and discusses how these new situations would have put strains on particular interpersonal relations, leading in many cases to conflict and dispute. After describing the local methods of conflict resolution, it is shown that on some occasions solutions are found which involve communal decisions to make a small change in cultural practice. In some cases these small changes have a knock-on effect leading to overall structural change. The article ends with a hypothetical reconstruction of the way in which the Doko Masho initiation rituals might have transformed. [source]

Global Environmental Governance and the Challenge of Shadow States: The Impact of Illicit Sapphire Mining in Madagascar

DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 5 2005
Rosaleen Duffy
The environment has become a key site of global governance because of its transboundary nature: forests, wildlife and oceans have all become central foci for networks of global governance which link international organizations, international financial institutions, states and non-governmental organizations. This article examines how contemporary forms of global governance can be challenged and even subverted. It uses the concept of shadow states introduced by William Reno to explore how invisible global networks flow through developing states, to show how they constitute important political and economic interest groups, and to assess what kinds of environmental impact they have. It explores how powerful these networks are, and whether they are able to challenge or subvert attempts to manage, control or govern the environment. The author provides an analysis of the ways in which the clandestine networks of shadow states impact on conservation initiatives in the developing world, focusing on the features of global environmental governance and the problems posed by illicit gem mining and trafficking in Madagascar. [source]

The spatial politics of the past unbound: transnational networks and the making of political identities

GLOBAL NETWORKS, Issue 4 2007
DAVID FEATHERSTONE
Abstract In this article I consider the relations between historical and contemporary forms of transnational political networks. I contest accounts that counterpose a networked present against a more settled and bounded past, arguing that this contrast rests on a problematic temporalization of difference in the construction of political identities. I consider how this temporalization produces particular accounts of relations between space, politics and identity. Drawing on the insurgent imaginative geography of resistance in C. L. R. James's The Black Jacobins, I argue for a focus on the dynamic geographies of connection formed through transnational networks. I develop this position through a discussion of the relations of the London Corresponding Society, formed in London in 1792, to transnational routes of political activists, organizational forms and ideas. This account highlights the multiple political identities crafted through transnational political networks. I conclude by outlining elements of a ,usable past' for contemporary counter-global struggles. [source]

,You'll never walk alone': CCTV surveillance, order and neo-liberal rule in Liverpool city centre1

THE BRITISH JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY, Issue 4 2000
Roy Coleman
ABSTRACT This paper is concerned to chart the establishment and uses of CCTV within the location of Liverpool city centre. In doing this the paper seeks to contextualize CCTV within contemporary ,partnership' approaches to regeneration which are reshaping the material and discursive form of the city. Thus CCTV schemes along with other security initiatives are understood as social ordering strategies emanating from within locally powerful networks which are seeking to define and enact orderly regeneration projects. In focusing on the normative aspects of CCTV, the paper raises questions concerning the efficacy of understanding contemporary forms of ,social ordering practices' primarily in terms of technical rationalities while neglecting other, more material and ideological processes involved in the construction of social order. [source]