The Form and Function of Poverty: Examining National Identity through Public Housing Architecture

Abstract

Lawrence J. Vale tells us that “grand symbolic state buildings need to be understood in terms of the political and cultural contexts that helped to bring them into being,” ¹ 1. Lawrence J. Vale, Architecture, Power, and National Identity (London: Routledge, 1992), 3. and that these buildings can help us understand our national identity. But all buildings are part of a broader political and cultural context. Even unimpressive state-funded buildings express meaning about the politics, power, and priorities of a nation. Because these buildings are not purposefully symbolic, their symbolism has the potential to provide a less contrived—though perhaps less appealing—portrayal of the nation in which they are built. Public housing provides an example of this idea. Public housing in the United States is latent with negative meanings that are reinforced and perpetuated by its architecture, siting, and design. This article examines three historical and iconic public housing communities and analyzes the meanings of these spaces through Goodman's four frames of reference—denotation, exemplification, metaphorical expression, and mediated reference—to determine what these spaces, as architecture, say about the American national identity and our relationship with public housing.     

邯郸市南湖小区古墓葬发掘简报邯郸市

2003年10月至11月,邯郸市文物保护研究所为配合南湖住宅小区建设,对发现的11座古墓葬进行了抢救发掘,出土了瓷器、铜镜、货币等随葬品.根据墓葬位置、形制及随葬品分析,其时代为金元和明清.     

The Rushenden Estate,Queenborough, Kent: An Early British Industrial Estate

Abstract

Queenborough, a town with origins as a medieval planted settlement on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, is set for major redevelopment over the coming years as part of the regeneration of the Thames Gateway region. English Heritage has produced an Historic Area Appraisal,¹ and, in the course of its research, documents relating to a hitherto obscure Edwardian industrial estate came to light. Laid out from 1904, the Rushenden Estate is significant because it was one of the first factory estates in the wake of Trafford Park, Manchester (1896), widely acknowledged as Britain's² — or even the world's³ — world's first industrial estate. Despite some economic history analyses and studies of individual sites, the subject of early industrial estates is surprisingly incomplete. Using material evidence derived from documentary research and fieldwork, this paper describes the evolution and growth of the Rushenden Estate, placing it in regional and typological contexts and within the milieu of the 'Second Industrial Revolution'.     

Impact of Cliff and Ord on the Housing and Real Estate Literature

The works of Cliff and Ord have had a major impact on empirical practices in real estate. Cliff and Ord proposed both techniques for detecting as well as modeling spatial dependence. Because the existence of spatial dependence is almost assured in real estate data, their most important contribution was feasible means of estimating spatial models. The full implications of these ideas and the numerous modeling techniques spawned by their seminal works have not been fully explored and provide numerous opportunities for future research.     

The Aetiology of Vampires and Revenants: Theological Debate and Popular Belief

In this paper, I discuss the supposed aetiology of undead corpses (by which I mean corpses that refused to stay dead), and the theological explanations for their existence, as outlined in the historical documents at the time, and the various arguments that ensued. I examine the medieval notion that the Devil might reanimate a corpse and pretend to be the deceased, for example, the post‐mortem effects of excommunication, and the incorruptibility of deceased saints and martyrs. In particular, I focus upon the vampires of eighteenth‐century Europe and the aetiological explanations proffered by the theologians, philosophers and medical fraternity at the time, such as vestigium vitae and premature burial, compared to folk belief at the village level. Furthermore, I argue that despite the largely successful campaign by the socio‐religious elite to eradicate such notions, muted belief in the existence of vampires continued to emerge thereafter because folk belief was fuelled by an entrenched early modern belief‐system that had itself promoted the existence of undead corpses.     

Gender and Witchcraft in Agrarian Transition: The Case of Kenyan Horticulture

This article examines the social effects of contract farming of export horticulture among smallholders in Meru District, Kenya. During the 1980s and 1990s, contracting was popularized by donors and governments alike as a way to reduce poverty and increase opportunities for self–employment in rural areas. Considerable research has documented the tensions in social relations that emerge in such cases, giving rise to gendered struggles over land, labour, and income in the face of new commodity systems. This article highlights similar tendencies. It suggests that men’s failure to compensate their wives for horticulture production has given rise to a string of witchcraft allegations and acts, as the wealth engendered by horticultural commodities comes up against cultural norms of marital obligation. While witchcraft accusations can expose women to risks of social alienation and financial deprivation, witchcraft nevertheless remains a powerful weapon through which women can level intra–household disparities and, more broadly, challenge the legitimacy of social practice. In Meru, witchcraft discourses are a vehicle through which gendered struggles over contract income are articulated and contested, and through which the social costs of agrarian transition become apparent.     

Reconstructing Kirkstead Abbey,Lincolnshire: The Charters,Earthworks and Architecture of a Lost Cistercian House

Kirkstead abbey, in the Witham Valley of Lincolnshire, is a little-known but highly significant Cistercian house, both for its early history and architecture, and for the fact that it was treated unusually on being one of the monasteries seized by the Crown for the treason of its president after the Lincolnshire Rising of 1536. Substantially ruined and poorly preserved above ground, recent study has questioned its traditional interpretation. Its standing remains are sparse but extremely informative; its site at least partly marked by earthworks; and its home estate can be reconstructed from a late 13th-century cartulary and a remarkable series of loose charters.     

Towards a Political Theology of Vulnerability Anthropological and Theological Propositions

Abstract

Recent experiences of terror, violence, and catastrophe, such as the terror attacks in Norway in 2011 or the Peshawar School Massacre leaving 132 children and nine staff dead on December 16, 2014, strengthen the sense of the fundamental vulnerability in human existence. In this article, it is argued that political theology, in responding to such experiences, should aim at perceiving and protecting vulnerability as a value. For this purpose, basic propositions for a theological anthropology of vulnerability are put forward. Likewise, propositions for interpreting God as vulnerable are presented, criticizing the traditional theistic concept of God as immutable and hence unable to suffer. The relevance of these propositions for political theology is finally addressed.     

Taking the Local: The Reagan Administration, New Federalism, and Fair Housing Implementation

This article explores how "New Federalism" under President Ronald W. Reagan manifested itself in the implementation of fair housing policy. We examine the Fair Housing Assistance Program (FHAP) and how it led to state and local civil rights agencies playing an increasingly vital role in implementing the Fair Housing Act of 1968. Relying on data provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), we show that a significant number of fair housing complaints were shifted from HUD to state and local agencies.