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Radical Critique (radical + critique)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences80%

Selected Abstracts

Ecological modernization and wind power in the UK

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND GOVERNANCE, Issue 3 2006
Dave Toke
Abstract We analyse the UK wind power programme using a particular variant of ecological modernization (EM) theory developed by Christoff (1996). This distinguishes between a centralist ,weak' EM strategy and a more decentralized ,strong' approach. A radical critique of EM is also considered. The ,weak' EM typology is most relevant to the case of wind power in the UK. However, ,strong' EM may have some purchase on account of its normative dimensions. Deployment of ,strong' EM may, in this case, go some way to defusing some of the criticisms made by observers operating from a radical green perspective. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source]

Teaching & Learning Guide for: The Origins of English Puritanism

HISTORY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 4 2007
Karl Gunther
Author's Introduction This essay makes the familiar observation that when one part of an historiography changes, so must other parts. Here the author observes that the phenomenon known as puritanism has dramatically changed meanings over the past quarter century, though the change has focused on the Elizabethan and early Stuart periods. He asks that we consider the impact of that change on the earlier period, when puritanism in England had its origins. Focus Questions 1Why is the author unable to posit an answer to his question? 2If new study of the origins of puritanism were to reveal that it was not a mainstream Calvinist movement, but a radical critique of the Henrician and early Elizabethan church, how would that affect the new orthodoxy in Puritan studies? Author Recommends * A. G. Dickens, The English Reformation (Batsford, 1989). The starting place for all modern discussions of the English Reformation and the origins of both conservative and radical protestantism in England. Dicken's view is that the reformation was a mixture of German ideas, English attitudes, and royal leadership. * Eamon Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England c.1400,1580 (Yale Univeristy Press, 2005). What was it that the Reformation reformed? In order to understand early English protestantism, one needs to see it within the context of Catholicism. Eamon Duffy rejects the narrative of the Catholic church told by Protestant reformers and demonstrates the ruthlessness of the reformation. * Ethan Shagen, Popular Politics and the English Reformation (Cambridge University Press, 2003). Shagan asks the question, how is a conservative population energized to undertake the overthrow of their customs and beliefs? He too is centrally concerned with the issue of how radical was the English Reformation. * Brad Gregory, Salvation at Stake: Christian Martyrdom in Early Modern Europe (Harvard University Press, 1999). Nothing better expressed the radicalism of religious belief than the dual process of martyrdom, the willingness of the established religion to make martyrs of its enemies and of dissendents to be martyrs to their cause. Gregory explores this phenomenon across the confessional divide and comes to surprising conclusions about similarities and differences. Online Materials 1. Puritan Studies on the Web http://puritanism.online.fr A site of resources for studies of Puritanism, this contains a large number of primary sources and links to other source sites. The Link to the English Reformation is particularly useful. 2. The Royal Historical Society Bibliography http://www.rhs.ac.uk/bibl/dataset.asp The bibliography of the Royal Historical Society contains a complete listing of articles and books on all aspects of British history. Subject searches for Puritanism or the English Reformation will yield hundreds of works to choose from. [source]

Non-Economic Factors in Economic Geography and in ,New Regionalism': A Sympathetic Critique

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 3 2006
COSTIS HADJIMICHALIS
In the current debate on local and regional development and after several ,turns', dominant critical models have found some security in institutional, cultural and evolutionary approaches. Interest today centres on success and competitiveness and how they are reproduced in a few paradigmatic regions. A distinctive feature of these regions and places is the embeddedness of certain non-economic factors such as social capital, trust and reciprocity based on familiarity, face-to-face exchange, cooperation, embedded routines, habits and norms, local conventions of communication and interaction, all of which contribute to a region's particular success. Although these approaches may not deny the forces of the capitalist space economy, they do not explicitly acknowledge them or take them on board and so they tend to discuss non-economic factors and institutions as autonomous forces shaping development. This essay provides a critique of these concepts based on their (1) inadequate theorization, (2) depoliticized view of politics and de-economized use of economics and (3) reduction of space to territory. The essay concludes that we need a far more penetrating renewal of radical critique of the current space economy of capitalism. Old concepts such as uneven development, the social and spatial division of labour, the geographical transfer of value, accumulation and imperialism must be combined with cultural and institutional issues, with those non-economic factors mentioned above. [source]

Within and Beyond Communities of Practice: Making Sense of Learning Through Participation, Identity and Practice*

JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 3 2006
Karen Handley
abstract Situated learning theory offers a radical critique of cognitivist theories of learning, emphasizing the relational aspects of learning within communities of practice in contrast to the individualist assumptions of conventional theories. However, although many researchers have embraced the theoretical strength of situated learning theory, conceptual issues remain undeveloped in the literature. Roberts, for example, argues in this issue that the notion of ,communities of practice', a core concept in situated learning theory , is itself problematic. To complement her discussion, this paper explores the communities of practice concept from several perspectives. Firstly, we consider the perspective of the individual learner, and examine the processes which constitute ,situated learning'. Secondly, we consider the broader socio-cultural context in which communities of practice are embedded. We argue that the cultural richness of this broader context generates a fluidity and heterogeneity within and beyond communities. Finally, we argue that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish conceptually between the terms ,participation' and ,practice' because of occasional duplication of meaning. We propose, instead, a refinement of the definition to allow for greater conceptual clarity. [source]

Geographies of Architecture: The Multiple Lives of Buildings

GEOGRAPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 5 2010
Peter Kraftl
Arguably, cultural geography began with the study of architectural forms. The first half of this article traces the geographical study of buildings as a relatively small but significant sub-field of cultural geography. It summarises three approaches that characterise this work. First, the study of everyday, vernacular buildings, found especially (but not exclusively) in North American cultural geography. Second, radical critiques of the political,economic imperatives that are built into particular architectural forms such as the skyscraper and the related interpretation of buildings as signs, symbols or referents for dominant socio-cultural discourses or moralities. Third, what can broadly (but not unproblematically) be termed non-representational or ,critical' methods that stress practice, materiality and affect. The second half of the article highlights the productive connections between these three approaches. It stresses that recent research on the geographies of architecture has adopted elements of each approach to make a number of contributions to the study of cultural geography. Two key themes are considered: movement/stasis; the politics of architectural design and practice. Consideration of these themes anticipates a conclusion with some broad suggestions for future geographical research on architecture. [source]