No Future for‘Tibet Independence’

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It’s the Ideology,Stupid! In Macri’s Argentina: A Reportage

A first snapshot from the frontlines of ‘change’ in Latin America: cumbia music from the Casa Rosada, police repression against villeros and indigenous activists, and soul-searching amidst supporters of the ‘Victory Front’ in the face of defeat. Have we now moved from the ‘pink’ to the ‘yellow tide’?     

Brian Hope-Taylor,the Council for British Archaeology,and ‘The Need for Adequate Archaeological Propaganda’

Abstract

Brian Hope-Taylor (1923–2001) is remembered as one of the first archaeologists in the United Kingdom to introduce the discipline to a wider audience, through presenting television programmes in the 1960s. He also oversaw numerous excavations. The Council for British Archaeology (CBA) is known for being an educational charity, with the protection of the UK’s archaeological heritage and historic environment central to its activities. What is perhaps less well-known is that, in the 1940s, Hope-Taylor was behind a proposal to the CBA to introduce a campaign of ‘cheerful propaganda’, in order to raise awareness among the wider public about chance archaeological finds and their significance, and hence to persuade them to report these discoveries to appropriate ‘experts’. This paper uses archival evidence and the existing literature to examine, within a historical context, the proposed scheme. Had it come to fruition, it would have introduced principles and mechanisms for public reporting and recording of archaeological discoveries comparable to those laid out by the Portable Antiquities Scheme, which itself did not come to fruition for another five decades.     

Champaner‐Pavagadh Archaeological Park: A Design Approach

Champaner‐Pavagadh, like many other heritage sites in India, is both an historic and ethnographic landscape. It possesses a unique status as a medieval city—Champaner—frozen in time, more or less protected by its sudden abandonment 450 years ago. At the same time, it is a living sacred site—Pavagadh Hill—visited annually by millions, with a resident population. Efforts are underway to declare the hill and the remains of the medieval city at its foot an archaeological park, which will ensure protection and conservation of cultural and natural resources. The challenge in designing the site as an archaeological park lies in articulating the pastoral image conjured up by the term in a manner that does not belie complex issues of land ownership, varied use, and ecological integrity of the site. Working landscapes—farms, flower fields, orchards, and nurseries—can be employed as a landscape‐design typology to ensure sustainability and to preserve and frame sightlines to monuments. Garden archaeology is necessary to uncover the symbiotic relationship between buildings and gardens of medieval Champaner.     

Future Non-Analogue Climates for Scotland’s Temperate Rainforest

Temperate rainforest is restricted to a globally rare set of climatic conditions. Scotland has among the best remaining examples of intact temperate rainforest in Europe, characterised ecologically by a unique assemblage of epiphytic bryophytes and lichens. Given climatic control on rainforest distribution and ecology, climate change is a probable risk to Scotland’s rainforest. This study investigated climate change impacts for 20 target sites, classified based on (i) bioclimatic conditions, and (ii) epiphytic diversity, into contrasting rainforest and more continental (non-rainforest) examples. Space-for-time matching identified climate analogues within the European conservation forest network, which at present have a climate similar to that expected of the target sites during the 2080s (WorldClim datasets). The results show that 2080s analogues for sites in more continental north-eastern Scotland occur in Wales and southern England. However, Scottish rainforest sites were their own ‘best analogues’ through to the 2080s, despite the fact that their climate is projected to change significantly; they had no suitable future analogue within Europe’s conservation forest network. These contrasting regional patterns highlight the need for a flexible approach to species conservation during climate change, including a strategy to cope with ecological uncertainty in Scotland’s zone of oceanic rainforest.     

Musealizing Archaeological Sites. Considerations on Research,Conservation, and Dissemination: A Case Study from the Gavà Mines Archaeological Park

This paper offers some considerations on the concept of musealization at archaeological parks. It focuses on aspects of the design and development of a musealized archaeological site: conservation, security, museological techniques, communication, and, above all, the role of research as the basis to develop continuously renewed and high-quality content for public dissemination. The case of the Gavà Mines Archaeological Park (Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain) is used to exemplify the reflections presented in this article.     

“Don’t call me a Cajun!”: race and representation in Louisiana’s Acadiana region

In southwestern Louisiana, the public sphere is dominated by the image of the Cajuns, presented as a hardy, likable people who have overcome significant obstacles since their arrival as Acadians in the late eighteenth century. Across the cultural region designated “Acadiana,” which comprises 22 counties, nearly 30% of the population is black (or Creole, mixed-race peoples generally identifying as black). Contributions of non-whites to the region’s history are usually not incorporated into the public historical narrative, and the erasure of these groups’ influences on the state’s cultural “gumbo” has profound symbolic and material consequences. Black/Creole residents note that much of their culture – primarily music and foodways – has been repackaged as Cajun or subsumed under the Cajun label and that they are unable to take advantage of the benefits that Creole-oriented tourism could bring to a region in which half of the counties are designated “black high poverty parishes.” Using mixed methods, including interviews, archival analysis, and census data, this paper explores the social, political, and economic consequences of the domination of Cajuns in the south Louisiana memorial and representational landscape and argues that commemorative silences in what Alderman et al. have called the “memorial arena” perpetuate a hegemonic social order.     

Excavating ‘Hell Upon Earth’ Towards a Research Framework for the Archaeological Investigation of Workers’ Housing: Case Studies from Manchester,UK

This paper uses 16 years of targeted fieldwork on excavating workers’ housing in the Manchester region, UK, to assess a variety of research approaches to the investigation of urban industrial housing of the late 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. Manchester was one of the ‘shock’ cities of industrial Britain, and a honey pot for social commentary during the Victorian period. Using data from more than 30 excavation sites, it looks at the way in which archaeological evidence can be used to explore issues around house build quality, overcrowding, sanitation and disease, and reconstructing households from their material remains. Manchester's reputation for poor living conditions during the industrialising period was crystallised around the comments of contemporary social commentators from Engels to Gaskell. Yet, the archaeological evidence reviewed in this article demonstrates the value of archaeological approaches in challenging and testing such views through detailed case studies. More importantly, it shows that archaeological material can be used to study directly features of the new industrialised form of urban living, providing a set of research questions applicable across the industrial urban workers’ housing of Britain.     

Introduction: Italians Do It Better? The Occupation of Spaces for Radical Struggles in Italy

Italy could be considered a social laboratory in relation to radical theories, practices, struggles and radical political conditions. It is worth exploring what kind of laboratory Italy is and investigating some of the features of current struggles that challenge neoliberalism and the revival of fascism. One way to grasp the specificity of the Italian context is by considering an inherent set of social conflicts that take the form of multidimensional challenges, embracing social, cultural, economic and decision‐making dimensions. Put succinctly, a prefigurative politics is the lens suggested to interpret the experience of squatting and commoning, which are the fundamental attributes of many related struggles over housing and Social Centers and environmental protection.     

A (Digital) Future for Saharan Rock Art?

First visited by westerners in the mid-nineteenth century, Saharan rock art has since received a great deal of attention. The richness and diversity of this region is recognised by the inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage list of three properties: Tassili-n-Ajjer in Algeria, Tadrart Acacus in Libya, and Ennedi in Chad. The situation in many North African countries now makes this vast region very difficult to access: safety in the field is not guaranteed and few research funds are available. Today, a new generation of African and foreign scientists has no access to rock art sites in the north of the continent and the lack of fieldwork may entail a lack of safeguard and awareness. The growth of digital technologies over the last 15 years has revolutionised methods for recording rock art sites. Digital technologies are also used to mitigate the gap between artworks and accessibility in those countries where turmoil and social instability make fieldwork impossible. However, much of the documentation and most digital recordings of artworks currently available on the Internet lack an archaeological context. Equally, many of these websites barely mention methodological and theoretical aspects. It is also difficult to understand the extent of awareness among local communities in remote areas—sometimes suffering a digital and linguistic divide—and if (and how) they are genuinely able to exploit these digital resources. Here, I collate some examples from different parts of the Sahara illustrating that the recording, management and dissemination of rock art still present highs and lows. I argue that we should share theories and methods within the digital scientific community, with a view to adopting a shared nomenclature and a public thesaurus, making our cataloguing criteria explicit and, finally, developing an ethical code of conduct involving local communities.     

Calming the Shock Waves: Can Financial Reform Do It? (A Review Article)

Books reviewed in this article: G. Caprio, P. Honohan and J. E. Stiglitz (eds.), Financial Liberalization, How Far, How Fast? B. Eichengreen, Financial Crises and What to do about Them D. Nayyar (ed.), Governing Globalization, Issues and Institutions J. E. Stiglitz, Globalization and its Discontents J. J. Teunissen (ed.), New Challenges of Crisis Prevention, Addressing Economic Imbalances in the North and Boom‐Bust Cycles in the South J. Tirole, Financial Crises, Liquidity and the International Monetary System     

Recording Transition in Post-Industrial England: A Future Perfect View of Oxford’s Motopolis

Deindustrialisation is rapidly recreating Britain's economic landscape. Heavy industry is being replaced by the built forms and landscapes needed by service industries. This paper introduces an archaeology of deindustrialisation as it occurs in the present. It examines the ways in which the Taylorist and Fordist auto-manufacturing landscapes that have defined their environments are being reshaped and commemorated.     

Gender and poverty: what we know,don’t know,and need to know for Agenda 2030

Drawing on historical debates on gender, poverty, and the ‘feminisation of poverty’, this paper reflects on current evidence, methods and analysis of gendered poverty. It focuses on initiatives by UN Women, including the Progress of the World’s Women 2015–16. Our analysis of the data compiled by UN Women raises questions about what might account for the over-representation of women among the poor in official accounts of poverty, and how this is plausibly changing (or not) over time. The paper highlights that analysis of what is measured and how needs to be understood in relation to who is the focus of measurement. The lack of available data which is fit for purpose questions the extent to which gender poverty differences are ‘real’ or statistical. There is a continued reliance on comparing female with male headed households, and we argue the move by UN Women to adopt the notion of Female Only Households reflects available data driving conceptual understandings of women’s poverty, rather than conceptual advances driving the search for better data. Wider UN processes highlight that while sensitivity to differences among women and their subjectivities are paramount in understanding the multiple processes accounting for gender bias in poverty burdens, they are still accorded little priority. To monitor advances in Agenda 2030 will require more and better statistics. Our review suggests that we are still far from having a set of tools able to adequately measure and monitor gendered poverty.