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Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences80%
Distribution within Humanities and Social Sciences
General & Introductory Anthropology16%

Selected Abstracts

What Happens to the State in Conflict?: Political Analysis as a Tool for Planning Humanitarian Assistance

DISASTERS, Issue 4 2000
Lionel Cliffe
It is now part of received wisdom that humanitarian assistance in conflict and post-conflict situations may be ineffective or even counterproductive in the absence of an informed understanding of the broader political context in which so-called ,complex political emergencies' (CPEs) occur. Though recognising that specific cases have to be understood in their own terms, this article offers a framework for incorporating political analysis in policy design. It is based on a programme of research on a number of countries in Africa and Asia over the last four years. It argues that the starting-point should be an analysis of crises of authority within contemporary nation-states which convert conflict (a feature of all political systems) into violent conflict; of how such conflict may in turn generate more problems for, or even destroy, the state; of the deep-rooted political, institutional and developmental legacies of political violence; and of the difficulties that complicate the restoration of legitimate and effective systems of governance after the ,termination' of conflict. It then lists a series of questions which such an analysis would need to ask , less in order to provide a comprehensive check-list than to uncover underlying political processes and links. It is hoped these may be used not only to understand the political dynamics of emergencies, but also to identify what kinds of policy action should and should not be given priority by practitioners. [source]

Constitutional Irresolution: Law and the Framing of Civil Society

EUROPEAN LAW JOURNAL, Issue 4 2003
Emilios Christodoulidis
I will explore some of the more adventurous and persuasive such attempts to argue for an inclusive constitutionalism, one that supposedly reaches out to civil society and in order to do so relaxes the rigidity of its own terms, to harbour and host the diversity it aspires to represent. I will argue that these attempts at inclusion create constitutional irresolutions either forcing impossible demands on constitutionalism or dispelling the disorganisation it is meant to give expression to. I will then argue that in spite of the inability to capture them as constitutional moments, politics of ,pure presence' and real self-determination are possible, and against constitutional mystifications, resistance might find its opportunity in praxis, understood in the language of praxis philosophy (more specifically the work of Antonio Negri). [source]

Bread, Cheese and Genocide: Imagining the Destruction of Peoples in Medieval Western Europe

HISTORY, Issue 307 2007
LEN SCALES
Western European society in the middle ages is generally perceived as lying, in its modes of thought and action, far remote from those acts of mass ethnic destruction which have been a recurrent element in world history since the early twentieth century. Yet medieval Europeans too were capable of envisaging the violent obliteration of peoples. Indeed, the view that such acts had occurred in times past and were liable to occur again was deeply embedded in medieval thought and assumption. For some commentators, the destruction of certain peoples was inseparable from the making of others, an essential motor of historical change, underpinned by biblical narratives of divine election and condemnation. Such notions constituted a matrix within which medieval writers interpreted real acts of social and political violence, the scale and the ethnic foundations of which they were thus naturally inclined to inflate. Nevertheless, their belief in the recurrent historical reality of ethnic destruction was, in their own terms, well founded , although medieval conceptions of what constituted the undoing of peoples were broader than most modern definitions of ,genocide'. By the later middle ages, moreover, government was increasingly perceived , not without justification , as a powerful agent for remaking the ethnic map. [source]

ALL THIS HAPPENED, MORE OR LESS: WHAT A NOVELIST MADE OF THE BOMBING OF DRESDEN,

HISTORY AND THEORY, Issue 2 2009
ANN RIGNEY
ABSTRACT Kurt Vonnegut's novel Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) was a popular and critical success when it first appeared, and has had a notable impact on popular perceptions of "the bombing of Dresden," although it has been criticized by historians because of its inaccuracy. This article analyzes the novel's quirky, comic style and its generic mixture of science fiction and testimony, showing how Vonnegut consistently used ingenuous understatement as a way of imaginatively engaging his readers with the horrors of war. The article argues that the text's aesthetics are closer to those of graphic novels than of realist narratives and that, accordingly, we can understand its cultural impact only by approaching it as a highly artificial linguistic performance with present-day appeal and contemporary relevance, and not merely by measuring the degree to which it gives a full and accurate mimesis of past events. The article uses the case of Vonnegut to advance a more general argument that builds on recent work in cultural memory studies: in order to understand the role that literature plays in shaping our understanding of history, it needs to be analyzed in its own terms and not as a mere derivative of historiography according to a "one model fits all" approach. Furthermore, we need to shift the emphasis from products to processes by considering both artistic and historiographical practices as agents in the ongoing circulation across different cultural domains of stories about the past. Theoretical reflection should account for the fact that historiography and the various arts play distinct roles in this cultural dynamics, and while they compete with one another, they also converge, bounce off one another, influence one another, and continuously beg to be different. [source]

The Significance of Property Restitution to Sustainable Return in Bosnia and Herzegovina

INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 3 2006
Rhodri C. Williams
ABSTRACT The restitution of property to refugees and displaced persons (RDPs) who fled their homes during the 1992 to 1995 conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina has been highly successful on its own terms. After getting off to a slow start in the immediate post-war years, this process saw the return of more than 200,000 claimed properties to their pre-war residents by mid-2004. Although property restitution has facilitated durable solutions for RDPs who have benefited from it, these durable solutions have not exclusively taken the form of voluntary and permanent return. In many cases, RDPs have chosen instead to sell, exchange, or lease their restituted homes in order to finance voluntary internal resettlement in parts of the country other than their pre-war places of residence. In all cases, however, property restitution has been crucial to the viability and sustainability of either return or resettlement, facilitating free and informed choices by RDPs regarding their future. Property restitution in Bosnia and Herzegovina has often been held up as a model for other post-conflict settings characterized by mass-displacement. However, the utility of Bosnia and Herzegovina as an example must be assessed in light of favourable domestic and international factors that are unlikely to be repeated in other contexts. This paper argues that these factors should not disqualify Bosnia and Herzegovina as an example, but should instead underscore the importance that lessons learned in Bosnia and Herzegovina be incorporated early in the planning of other peace missions and implemented consistently. One of the foremost of these lessons was the efficacy of shifting the focus from the highly politicized concept of return to a more impartial "rule of law" approach, connoting an emphasis on individuals' rights to their former homes. The unusual level of resources that allowed the international community to correct its own early mistakes would not have been enough to guarantee property restitution in the absence of this successful implementation strategy. La restitution des biens aux réfugiés et aux personnes déplacées (RPD) ayant fui leurs foyers durant le conflit qui a sévi en Bosnie-Herzégovine entre 1992 et 1995 a été un vrai succès. Après un démarrage lent au lendemain immédiat de la guerre, ce processus avait permis la restitution, à la mi-2004, de plus de 200.000 propriétés à leurs occupants d'avant la guerre. Si la restitution des propriétés a apporté une solution durable aux RPD qui en ont bénéficié, cette solution durable n'a pas exclusivement pris la forme d'un retour volontaire et définitif. Dans de nombreux cas, les RPD ont plutôt choisi de rendre, d'échanger ou de mettre en location leurs logements restitués afin de financer une réinstallation volontaire dans d'autres régions du pays. Dans tous les cas, cependant, la restitution des propriétés a été cruciale pour la viabilité et la durabilité soit du retour soit de la réinstallation, facilitant des choix libres et en connaissance de cause de la part des RPD quant à leur avenir. La restitution des propriétés en Bosnie-Herzégovine a souvent été donnée en exemple pour d'autres contextes d'après-guerre caractérisés par des déplacements massifs. Cependant, l'utilité de la Bosnie-Herzégovine comme exemple doit être évaluée à la lumière des facteurs internes et internationaux favorables qui ont peu de chance de se produire dans d'autres contextes. L'auteur considère que ces facteurs ne doivent cependant pas disqualifier la Bosnie-Herzégovine en tant que modèle à suivre, mais qu'il faut plutôt souligner l'importance des enseignements tirés dans cette partie du monde pour les incorporer à un stade avancé dans la planification des autres missions de paix et faire en sorte qu'ils soient appliqués de manière cohérente. L'une des principales leçons à tirer en l'occurrence a été l'efficacité avec laquelle le concept hautement politisé du retour a opéré un glissement vers une approche plus impartiale favorisant la "primauté du droit", en ce sens qu'un accent particulier a été mis sur le droit des personnes à reprendre possession de leurs anciens logements. Le niveau de ressources inhabituel ayant permis à la communauté internationale de corriger ses propres fautes initiales n'aurait pas suffi pour garantir la restitution des biens en l'absence de cette stratégie positive de mise en ,uvre. La restitución de propiedades de refugiados y desplazados que tuvieron que abandonar sus hogares durante el conflicto de Bosnia y Herzegovina entre 1992 y 1995, ha tenido mucho éxito de acuerdo con lo estipulado en su propio mandato. Tras un inicio sumamente lento en los primeros años de posguerra, a mediados de 2004 el proceso dio lugar a la restitución, de más de 200.000 bienes reclamados por sus residentes de antes de la guerra. Si bien la restitución de bienes ha facilitado soluciones duraderas para los refugiados y desplazados que se han beneficiado de la misma, estas soluciones duraderas no se han traducido exclusivamente en un retorno voluntario y permanente. En muchos casos, los refugiados y desplazados han decidido vender, intercambiar o alquilar las propiedades restituidas a fin de financiar su reasentamiento interno voluntario en otras partes del país, distintas de aquéllas donde residían antes de la guerra. En cualquier caso, la restitución de propiedades ha sido fundamental a la viabilidad y sostenimiento del retorno o reasentamiento, facilitando así las opciones libres e informadas de los refugiados y desplazados con relación a su futuro. La restitución de bienes en Bosnia y Herzegovina se considera como un modelo para otros entornos posconflicto caracterizados por desplazamientos masivos. Ahora bien, la utilidad de Bosnia y Herzegovina como ejemplo debe evaluarse a la luz de factores nacionales e internacionales favorables que probablemente no se den en otros contextos. Este estudio arguye que estos factores no descalifican a Bosnia y Herzegovina como ejemplo pero deben poner de relieve la importancia de las enseñanzas extraídas de la experiencia de Bosnia y Herzegovina en la planificación temprana de otras misiones de paz y llevarse a cabo de manera consecuente. Otra de las principales lecciones fue la eficacia de transferir el centro de atención del concepto altamente politizado del retorno a una perspectiva más imparcial de imperio de ley, que hizo hincapié en los derechos individuales de cara a sus ex hogares. El nivel inusual de recursos que permitió que la comunidad internacional corrigiese sus propios errores anteriores, y no habrían sido suficientes para garantizar la restitución de propiedades si no hubiera habido una estrategia acertada de puesta en práctica. [source]

Points of View, Social Positioning and Intercultural Relations

JOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, Issue 1 2010
GORDON SAMMUT
The challenge of intercultural relations has become an important issue in many societies. In spite of the claimed value of intercultural diversity, successful outcomes as predicted by the contact hypothesis are but one possibility; on occasions intercultural contact leads to intolerance and hostility. Research has documented that one key mediator of contact is perspective taking. Differences in perspective are significant in shaping perceptions of contact and reactions to it. The ability to take the perspective of the other and to understand it in its own terms is a necessary condition for successful intergroup outcomes. This paper sheds light on the processes involved in intercultural perspective taking by elaborating the notion of the point of view based on social representations theory. The point of view provides a theory of social positioning that can analyse cultural encounters between social actors, and identify the conditions for positive relations. Insights are drawn from a study of public views on the relative merits of science and religion, following a documentary by Richard Dawkins in which it was suggested that religion is a source of evil. The findings demonstrate that the point of view may be categorised according to a three-way taxonomy according to the extent to which it is open to another perspective. A point of view may be monological,closed to another's perspective entirely, dialogical,open to the possibility of another perspective while maintaining some percepts as unchallengeable, or metalogical,open to another's perspective based on the other's frame of reference. [source]

God Is Nothing but Talk: Modernity, Language, and Prayer in a Papua New Guinea Society

AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Issue 4 2001
Joel Robbins
This article brings together theories of local modernity and of linguistic ideology to analyze the way the Urapmin of Papua New Guinea have encountered modern linguistic ideology through their Christianization. Against the prevailing anthropological focus on the indigenization of modernity, this article argues the importance of attending to cases in which people grasp the content of modernity on its own terms. Studying this kind of local modernity allows us to model an important kind of contemporary cultural change and discover neglected aspects of modernity as refracted through the experiences of people new to it. Here, an analysis of the Urapmin encounter with modern linguistic ideology reveals that ideology's rootedness in a model that ties meaning to intention and truthfulness and favors the speaker over the listener in the construction of meaning. It is suggested that an awareness of the biases of this ideology can open up new topics in linguistic anthropology. [modernity, linguistic ideology, religion, Christianity, Melanesia] [source]

Sacramental Ontology: Nature and the Supernatural in the Ecclesiology of Henri de Lubac

NEW BLACKFRIARS, Issue 1015 2007
Hans Boersma
Abstract This essay argues that for Henri de Lubac, a sacramental ontology provides the link between a Eucharistically based ecclesiology and the issue of the relationship between nature and the supernatural. For de Lubac it is the sacramental order of reality that draws humanity to a deeper participation in the divine life. Maurice Blondel's substitution of Tradition for the dilemma between extrinsicism and historicism shapes de Lubac's sacramental ontology. The latter's concern for the social character of the Church and his opposition to an individualist ecclesiology are key to his understanding of the relationship between the supernatural and the Eucharistic character of the Church. Arguing that Eucharist and Church are mutually constituting, de Lubac wants to counter both extrinsicist and historicist approaches to the Church. For de Lubac, the Eucharist provides an avenue for the mutual interpenetration of nature and the supernatural, thereby overcoming the dualism between extrinsicism and historicism. It is through the sacramental means of Christ, the Church, and the Eucharist, that God is present in the world. This presence means for de Lubac neither an acceptance of the State on its own terms nor an exaggerated spiritualist critique of Constantinianism. [source]

Resting at creation and afterlife: Distant times in the ordinary strategies of Muslim women in the rural Fouta Djallon, Guinea

AMERICAN ETHNOLOGIST, Issue 1 2010
KAREN SMID
ABSTRACT Although anthropologists have discredited use of the liberal and secular concept of "agency" for explaining Muslim women's behavior, their evidence comes from women who still appear rather agentive to Western readers, hence, muting the necessity and consequences of discovering and applying the women's own ethical and religious terms in their analysis. In Guinea's rural Fouta Djallon, women are not prone to mobilize and make self-interested decisions with immediately observable outcomes. Therefore, understanding them on their own terms requires greater attention to their religious frameworks, namely, to their use of visions of creation and afterlife to define themselves and strategize for redemption. [source]

Focus on Economic Theory Keynes on the "Nature of Economic Thinking": The Principle of Non-Neutrality of Choice and the Principle of Non-Neutrality of Money

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY, Issue 4 2001
Giuseppe Fontana
In the last two decades there has been a flourishing of writings on the methodological approach of Keynes. Whereas broad interpretations of Keynes's work may have a role to play for future economics the main argument of this paper is to propose a return to the theoretical foundations of a truly Keynesian economics. In the main economic writings of Keynes it is possible to discern a body of beliefs, which is (a) consistent in its own terms and (b) susceptible of being used in the explanation of different realities. That body of beliefs is grounded on (1) the principle of non-neutrality of choice and (2) the principle of non-neutrality of money. Both principles were essential parts of the core of Keynes's A Treatise on Money (1930) and The General Theory (1936), and should be used as foundation for future development of Keynesian economics at the methodological as well as at the theoretical level. [source]

Soul and Self: Comparing Chinese Philosophy and Greek Philosophy

PHILOSOPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 4 2008
Jiyuan Yu
Comparative philosophy has been interested in issues such as whether the familiar Western concepts of the soul and self can be applied in understanding Chinese philosophy about human selfhood and whether there are alternative Chinese modes of thinking about these concepts. I will outline a comparison of the main concerns of the Greeks and Chinese philosophers in their discussion about the soul and self, and examine some of the major comparative theories that are recently developed. The comparative discussion is significant in helping us understand each tradition's views of soul and self in its own terms, and in identifying alternatives to familiar modes of thinking. However, we should avoid looking for simplified uniformity in each tradition and overgeneralizing the contrasts between China and Greece. [source]

Australian Indigenous Studies: A Question of Discipline

THE AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 3 2006
Martin Nakata
This paper is an early discussion of the ways we are approaching Indigenous Studies in Australian Universities. The focus is on how disciplinary and scholarly issues within Indigenous Studies can be interrogated and yet retain the necessary cohesion and solidarity so important to the Indigenous struggle. The paper contrasts Indigenous Studies pursued by Indigenous scholars to other disciplinary perspectives in the academy. Categories such as the Indigenous community and Indigenous knowledge are problematised, not to dissolve them, but to explore productive avenues. I identify one of the problems that Indigenous studies faces as resisting the tendency to perpetuate an enclave within the academy whose purpose is to reflect back an impoverished and codified representation of Indigenous culture to the communities that are its source. On the other hand, there is danger also in the necessary engagement with other disciplines on their own terms. My suggestion is that we see ourselves mapping our understanding of our particular Indigenous experiences upon a terrain intersected by the pathways, both of other Indigenous experiences, and of the non-Indigenous academic disciplines. My intention is to stimulate some thought among Indigenous academics and scholars about the future possibilities of Australian Indigenous Studies as a field of endeavour. [source]

Michael Polanyi, Tacit Cognitive Relativist

THE HEYTHROP JOURNAL, Issue 4 2001
Struan Jacobs
Celebrated as a theorist of science, and a source of stimulating ideas for theologians and philosophers of religion, Michael Polanyi explicitly denied cognitive relativism. Yet cognitive relativism, this paper suggests, is implied by Polanyi's account of conceptual frameworks and intellectual controversies. In ,The Stability of Beliefs' (1952) Polanyi understands conceptual frameworks (science, psychoanalysis, Azande witchcraft, Marxism) as embedded in, and as expressed in the use of, their own languages. The language-with-theory limits the range of discussable subjects, interprets relevant facts in its own terms, permits only certain questions to be asked, with answers to these questions serving to confirm the framework. In Polanyi's masterwork, Personal Knowledge (1958), these ideas inform his discussion of controversies over scientific frameworks and frameworks vying to become part of science. In each controversy, frameworks are logically disconnected, Polanyi foreshadowing the incommensurability thesis I argue that Polanyi's ideas satisfy recognised criteria of cognitive relativism. Perception is undetermined by objects and conditioned by language. Empirical propositions, in Polanyi's view, are accepted as true only within a conceptual framework. Polanyi regards supporters of logically disconnected frameworks as thinking differently, living in different worlds, speaking different languages and as experiencing communication failure. There is no framework-independent argument or evidence to distinguish any framework as the best available approximation to the truth. Frameworks are logically disconnected and incommensurable. [source]

Exuberance, I Don't Know; Excess, I Like

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN, Issue 2 2010
Hernan Diaz Alonso
Abstract Hernan Diaz Alonso redefines ,excess' and ,exuberance' on his own terms. Fully au fait and comfortable with the excessive, he describes how in relation to his own work he views excess as more of a tendency or a logic, which sums up his approach; whereas he perceives the exuberant as removed from the design process and more like an ,adjective', an ,emerging quality' observed by others. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Knowing our own history?

AREA, Issue 1 2008
Geography department archives in the UK
The paper presents an analysis of the returns to a questionnaire survey on the state of department archives within UK departments of geography. The results of the survey are discussed in relation to recent work in geography which has examined the archive as a site for knowledge's making but seldom in its own terms as a resource for the history of geography, and studies within the archival sciences which have considered the archive as something more than a ,storehouse' for collective memory. The paper reveals that the archival record for the history of British geography is at best uneven, and in many departments non-existent, although information on departmental history is held, often as memory, by individual geographers. The paper considers the survey's implications for the future histories of British geography and addresses the nature of the UK geography department archive as resource and responsibility. [source]