Finance is History!

A new sensitivity to the significance of historical experience has developed since the 2007 financial crisis. There are three possible ways of drawing on the past: as a source of advice on policies, of patterns of past evolution, of multiple possibilities. The best way of thinking about history is as a way of testing conventional hypotheses – particularly when those hypotheses are being used to create market opportunities (by making for false confidence; but also by engendering exaggerated despair).     

Sub-national cultural policy--where the action is: Mapping state cultural policy in the United States

Abstract

This paper argues that cultural policy analysts should turn their analytical attention towards the cultural policies of sub-national levels of government. State level cultural policy has become an increasingly important locus of interest for those who are concerned with the health and stability of the arts, culture, and humanities in American life, and the same is undoubtedly true elsewhere. This rise in the importance of cultural policy at the state level has not been accompanied by a similarly evolving understanding of the cultural policy system that has developed at this sub-national level. Cultural policy at the level of an American state has been the sum total of the more or less independent, uncoordinated activities of a variety of state agencies and allied organizations and institutions. This paper lays out a number of hypotheses concerning what we might be likely to find in such an inquiry and reports some preliminary findings from a cultural policy mapping project in the State of Washington.     

Extra! Extra! Read All About It: Newspaper Archives as Archaeological Site Survey

Relative to other historic documents, newspapers have received little attention from researchers as a source of archaeological data. Now that many historic newspapers have been digitized and placed online, this traditionally underutilized resource has the potential to yield new information about archaeological sites, especially those in heavily developed urban areas where sites are inaccessible or have been destroyed. In this article, a methodology is proposed by which archived newspapers might be searched for data about archaeological sites. A case study using newspapers from Allen County, Indiana and its principal city, Fort Wayne, demonstrates the utility of the methodology by producing evidence about many previously unrecorded archaeological sites.     

Shark attack!: A cultural approach

Many Australians would concur with the view of the novelist Tim Winton that we have an ‘almost supernatural fear and hatred’ of sharks. Especially in the wake of fatal attacks by great white sharks (on average once or twice per year), the extent of fascination and fear within the population at large is undeniable. This paper rejects the frequently encountered explanation that this is because we have an ‘instinctual’, ‘hard wired’ and ‘primal fear’ of wild animals that can kill people. Its focus instead is on the contemporary cultural interpretations of great whites and their behaviour which come to the fore when fatal attacks take place.     

塞班岛!

初来乍到,观海天一色就像美国人的一天离不开飞驰的车轮,塞班的一天离不开蔚蓝的大海.我们开着吉普车行驶在塞班的公路上,道路两旁满是油绿的凤凰树、椰子树.据说在二战期间,塞班岛被日军轰炸得寸草不生,日本战败后,美军用飞机播撒种子,经过约60年的时间,岛上才又生机盎然起来.随着坡度越来越接近海平面,眼前突然出现一片蔚蓝,深蓝色的海配以淡蓝色的天,海天相接,点缀着形状各异的白云.我坐在副驾驶上,开一罐冰芒果汁,看着窗外的景色,享受这在路上的生活.