A theory and a model of social change and evolution

The principal theme is that the seeds of a society's evolution are not contained within it; they are sown in the interface of interdependent societies. In particular, it is contended that evolutionary change is a result of transformations in a society's external economic and political relationships. These alterations occur mostly because of advances in the technology of intersocietal trade and other relations which are intertwined with increased concentrations of political authority. A reconceptualization of culture and habitat and a fourfold definition of social change are offered.     

Satellite and rocket observations of equatorial spread-F irregularities: a two-dimensional model

Recent rocket and satellite measurements of equatorial F-region irregularities have been able to resolve wavelengths comparable to the meter-size sensitivities of the Jicamarca and Altair radar backscatter techniques. In a July 1979 rocket campaign at the Kwajalein Atoll, vertical profile measurements by ‘in situ’ plasma probes showed the F-region marked by a number of large scale plasma depletions, each having its own distribution of smaller scale irregularities and a trend toward a co-location of the more intense irregularities with positive gradients of larger scale features. Similar measurements on the S3-4 Ionospheric Irregularities Satellite have shown large scale depletions (1–3 orders of magnitude) with east-west asymmetries that point toward the western wall as the sight for the more intense plasma density fluctuations. The combined rocket and satellite measurements provide a two-dimensional model of macroscopic F-region depletions with small structures tending to develop more readily on the top and western boundaries. The model and associated power spectral analyses is in concert with a developing catalog of radar observations and the predictions of numerical simulations which employ the Rayleigh-Taylor instability as the primary mechanism for the generation of intermediate wavelength irregularities.     

A sea of potential: The politics of global ocean observations

The Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) is creating a new understanding of the world ocean. With a vast and heterogeneous network of sensors, it converts the ocean's properties into flows of information, creating a “data double” of a dynamic sea. This view of the ocean underlies not only international geopolitics but also more broadly emergent modes of government. This paper analyzes changing strategies for governing global ocean observations to better understand the shifting coconstitution of nature, technology, and politics. In particular, I inquire into the GOOS's recent developments, which indicate a new conception of the ocean as a space of potentiality. I argue that this emergent understanding poses problems for our conventional political analytics, particularly that of biopolitics. To account for this shift, I draw on and extend Elizabeth Povinelli's offering of geontopolitics, which identifies a departure from the fundamental distinctions between life and nonlife made by biopolitics, seeing instead the potential for unpredictable changes not only in human subjects but also in geophysical systems and the contemporary planetary environmental conditions they shape. Emphasizing how geontopolitics both names a new mode of government and signifes its limits, Povinelli suggests three figures, following Foucault's four figures of biopolitics. I conclude by suggesting the world ocean as a fourth figure of geonotopolitics, as that which is so imbricated with life as to be indistinct from it. Throughout, I maintain that like Foucault's figures of biopolitics, the world ocean must be understood as inseparable from the knowledge relations that make it legible.     

A fatal flaw: Nairn's flight from theory

Bede Nairn, Civilising Capitalism: The Labor Movement in New South Wales, 1870–1900, ANU Press, Canberra, 1973, pp. 260 + xii, $8.95.     

Karl Marx's theory of history: A defense

A wave of recent publication connected to Hugh Trevor-Roper offers cause to take stock of his life and legacy. He is an awkward subject because his output was so protean, but a compelling one because of his significance for the resurgence of the history of ideas in Britain after 1945. The article argues that the formative period in Trevor-Roper's life was 1945–57, a period curiously neglected hit her to. It was at this time that the pioneered a history of ideas conceived above all as the study of European liberal and humanist tradition. Analysis of the relative importance of contemporary and early modern history in his oeuvre finds that, while the experience of Hitler and the Cold War was formative, it was not decisive. Trevor-Roper was at heart an early modernist who did not abjure specialization. However, he insisted that specialized study must be accompanied by “philosophical” reflection on the working sofa constant human nature present throughout history, a type of reflection best pursued by reading classical historians such as Gibbon and Burckhardt. Yet this imperative in turn fostered purely historical research into the history of historical writing–another branch of the history of ideas.     

The height distribution of radio meteors: comparison of observations at different frequencies on the basis of standard echo theory

A comparison is made between the observed height distributions of underdense radio meteor echoes measured at frequencies of 2, 6, 26 and 54 MHz and a simple model based on standard theory. This theory takes account of the initial radius of the train, the finite formation time due to the meteor velocity, and diffusion in the time between radar sweeps. The main features of the measured VHF (26 and 54 MHz) height distributions are predicted by this model, with peaks below 100 km and few meteors detected above 105 km. The main features of the measured HF (2 and 6 MHz) distributions are also successfully predicted, with peaks at ~105km. The model indicates few 6 MHz echoes from above 115km, in line with the observational data, although for the data used there is an instrumental cut-off just above this height. It is suggested that even at 2 MHz perhaps 50% of all meteor trains above 105km remain undetected. A comparison of the model and the measured 2 MHz distribution, which displays many meteors to at least 130 km, reveals that the true height distribution continues to rise above 105 km and would peak above 110 km were it not for the limited detectability of such high altitude meteors, even at such low frequencies.     

Deconstructive vs Pragmatic: A Critique of the Derrida–Searle Debate

ABSTRACT

This article presents a critical account of the debate between Derrida and Searle in which I defend Austin’s and Searle’s pragmatic analysis of speech against Derrida’s complex deconstructionist approach. I first formalize Derrida’s argument, reducing it to its main tenets that can be positively identified and critically reviewed. On the basis of this formalization I argue that the apparent incompatibility between Derrida’s and Searle’s approach to language becomes clear once we formalize, according to their type and content, the three concepts of “intention” that are confusedly referred to under one and the same label in the debate. This formalization reduces and clarifies the obscurity associated with the Derrida–Searle debate, and helps demonstrating the shortcomings of Derrida’s position.     

Leviathan vs. Lilliputian: A Data Envelopment Analysis of Government Efficiency

In this paper we present a new approach to measuring government efficiency, based on the theory that communities that allocate resources efficiently in the local public sector maximize property values. We use Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to identify the counties in Minnesota that are characterized by property-value maximization and hence an efficient public sector. The results indicate that the dominant source of public sector inefficiency is an inappropriate scale of operations. It appears that some county jurisdictions are too large to service the population efficiently. The size and concentration of government power are also responsible in part for observed inefficiencies.     

The political economy of socialism: A Marxist social theory

Talmon's treatment of nationalism varies in his different writings. This study will try to characterize his views as expressed in his final work, The Myth of the Nation and the Vision of Revolution. Through most of the book Talmon's preference for dealing with the vision of revolution, its prophets and bearers is very conspicuous. Their total devotion to restructuring and refashioning the whole world in accordance with the socialist ideology fascinated Talmon before it provoked him into analyzing it to death. Nationalism, on the other hand, appears at best as a natural feeling of loyalty and at worst as a hateful, aggressive, and racist obsession. One of his outstanding interests in that book is in the internal debate among socialists about nationalism as a value and as a strategy, and in the tremendous prominence of Jews in this process. It is only towards the end of the book that Talmon presents his main thesis, the confrontation between the two totalitarian ideologies, Bolshevism and Fascism as deriving from socialism and nationalism, and embodying two kinds of determinism, economic and biological. Nationalism appears as an irrational phantasy, which had developed throughout the nineteenth century to its pivotal culmination in Nazism. This highly problematic thesis, though brilliantly expressed by captivating metaphors, should I think be explained and revised.     

Gaiola vs. Borbone System: A Comparison between 18th Century Anti-Seismic Case Studies

This article briefly discusses the seismic-resistant heritage of the 18th century, circumscribed in Lisbon’s Baixa Pombalina (post 1755) and case baraccate of Southern Italy (post 1783).

A comparison of these anti-seismic systems is discussed through the architectural principles and the mechanical behavior. It is shown that, despite the wide diversity of cases and the different geo-historical conditioning, both systems arise from an intuition of the compound seismic efficiency, the typical pragmatism of the enlightenment period and an interpretation of the classic composition code.

Two specific case studies, a private building in Baixa Pombalina (Lisbon) and the Bishop’s Palace of Mileto (Calabria region) are compared. We briefly analyze: (i) configuration and structural principles; (ii) characteristics of the materials; and (iii) seismic behavior.

A standardized spatial morphology closely linked to traditional construction techniques positively determines the seismic response and it is one of the key common factors in this heritage to be preserved.

In both cases, the architectural and structural choices are crucial to the seismic response of the building and must be respected as an identity of a specific technical knowledge. Moreover, this materiality represents a historical continuity of the community’s memory that requires transdisciplinary, critical understanding, and preservation.     

Political theory in the Australian Journal of Political Science: A review

The place of political theory in AJPS has historically been a fairly marginal one, partly because Australia does not seem to have a strong national tradition of political theorizing. This is thought to be a function of living in a nation that never produced a great political theorist and was born neither in revolution or utopianism. Yet, although there has been a marked absence of high theory or exegetically-inclined history of ideas over the life of the journal, theorists have responded by contributing work that usefully illuminates applied problems with theoretical insight. Further, it may be the case that there is a peculiarly Australian style of political theory that is pragmatic and self-consciously embedded within our institutions and political culture. The paper explores this and other means by which Australian theorists have adapted in order to retain a presence within the journal.     

A queer theory of software studies: software theories,queer studies

This introduction to the themed section ‘Queering Code/Space’ poses the question: what is the spatial relationship between technology and sexuality? We outline two overarching issues concerning technology and sexuality that lie outside of yet intersect with discussions in geographical scholarship. We then detail the characteristics of two largely distinct schools of thought – software studies and queer theory – to examine the tensions of and correspondence between these separate intellectual systems. We assess what might be productively found at the intersections of software studies and queer theory in terms of their respective epistemological approaches toward the topics of technology and sexuality. We briefly outline the effects the combination of software studies and queer theory have had on geography and what more they might have to offer. We conclude by providing an overview of the articles in the themed section.