The Unseamed Picture: Conflicting Narratives of Women in the Modern European Past

This article is about the tension between the grand narrative of modern European women's history and the micro‐study of a particular place and experience. Adopting a perspective far removed from the metropolitan heart of Europe forces one to think differently about the prime motors of change and the chronology of that change. I ask how we can write meaningful and recognisable histories which simultaneously are recognisable to those whose voices are represented and which also contribute to the (re)writing of the bigger picture. I conclude that an alternative history can only emerge from a historical practice which privileges a social memory crafted around narratives of women whose sense of the past included themselves.     

Characterization in the Hagar and Ishmael Narratives

ABSTRACT

A careful reading of the Hagar and Ishmael stories shows that commentators who take Hagar to be either persecuted victim or exemplary heroine oversimplify. None of the human characters is a paragon of virtue; all are flawed. It is through these very imprefect human beings that YHWH’s purposes are advanced, though even the deity’s own behaviour seems at times to be rather problematic.     

Policy Narratives and Policy Processes

The Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) has influenced a generation of policy scholars with its emphasis on causal drivers, testable hypotheses, and falsification. Until recently, the role of policy narratives has been largely neglected in ACF literature partially because much of that work has operated outside of traditional social science principles, such as falsification. Yet emerging literature under the rubric of Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) demonstrates how the role of policy narratives in policy processes is studied using the same rigorous social science standards initially set forth by Paul A. Sabatier. The NPF identifies theories specifying narrative elements and strategies that are likely useful to ACF researchers as classes of variables that have yet to be integrated. Examining this proposition, we provide seven hypotheses related to critical ACF concepts including advocacy coalitions and policy beliefs, policy learning, public opinion, and strategy. Our goal is to stay within the scientific, theoretical, and methodological tradition of the ACF and show how NPF's empirical, hypotheses, and causal driven work on policy narratives identifies theories applicable to ACF research while also offering an independent framework capable of explaining the policy process through the power of policy narratives. In doing so, we believe both ACF and NPF scholarship can contribute to the advancement of our understanding of the policy process.     

Bodies in Motion: Narratives and Counter Narratives of Gendered Mobility in European Later Prehistory

Normative notions of sex and gender were prevalent in discussion of European prehistoric societies until the last quarter of the 20th century. The progressive work that challenged a binary approach, published particularly in the 1990s, created an anticipation for further nuanced interpretation. This paper argues that, in contrast to this expectation, there was a surprising return to narrating a past of binary sex and gender. Societal roles have continued to be imagined as formalised through structures based on biological sex, with men seen as active mobile agents, while women were passive and static homemakers. We argue that not only is this unhelpful, the archaeological evidence renders it incorrect. We highlight the inherent conflicts in the data to show that investigating sex and gender in the past is difficult with imperfect and complex archaeological evidence. It requires careful and deliberate consideration to avoid normative explanations. In conclusion, we propose that investigating mobility is a particularly effective topic for examining past gendered societal roles.     

Narratives of Genetic Selfhood**

This essay considers the mid-twentieth century adoption of genetic explanations for three biological phenomena: nutritional adaptation, antibiotic resistance, and antibody production. This occurred at the same time as the hardening of the neo-Darwinian Synthesis in evolutionary theory. I argue that these concurrent changes reflect an ascendant narrative of genetic selfhood, which prioritized random hereditary variation and selection through competition, and marginalized physiological or environmental adaptation. This narrative was further reinforced by the Central Dogma of molecular biology and fit well with liberal political thought, with its focus on the autonomous individual. However, bringing biological findings into line with this narrative required modifying the notion of the gene to account for various kinds of non-Mendelian inheritance. Hans-Jörg Rheinberger's reflections on narrative and experiment are valuable in thinking about the friction between the postwar ideal of genetic selfhood and actual observations of how organisms adapt in response to the environment.     

Narratives and Bodies: Culture beyond the Cultural Turn

This article offers a fresh assessment of the current condition of ‘culturalist’ international history, exploring its achievements and limitations, taxonomising its key threads and charting an agenda for the future. It argues that at its heart lie two core concerns, one with narratives and the other with bodies. Thinking in this way allows us both to tie together work which initially appears disparate – endowing a bewilderingly diverse mass of scholarship with coherence and shape – and to better grasp the project's current trajectory. It analyses how these two issues rose to prominence, discussing not only the merits and failings of previous ‘culturalist’ work but also linkages with shifting debates in historical theory in the aftermath of the ‘postmodern’ turn. It explores the contours of the important work currently being conducted under these rubrics, drawing attention where appropriate to cognate scholarship in the discipline of International Relations with which international historians might profitably engage. Understanding the significance of these two core concepts provides vital orientation in contemporary intellectual debates within international history and enables us to push them on further.     

在国家叙事与地方叙事之间——英国北约克郡乡村博物馆实践

作为工业化程度较低的非都市郡,英国北约克郡保存着完好的乡村景观和历史建筑。自19世纪,英国便出现乡村生活的博物馆化,在保护乡村景观的同时也致力于收藏、保存乡村记忆。北约克郡乡村博物馆的产生和发展植根于英国社会和文化情境。乡村博物馆实践不仅是国家价值的体现,也是调节社会结构和社会关系的重要机制。在国家话语体系内界定"乡村"的同时,也承担起塑造地方感和地方认同。反观我国乡村博物馆,其实践以20世纪90年代的生态博物馆建设为肇始,秉承对村落景观进行整体性保护的理念。然而,在具体建设中仍然面临激发村落居民文化自觉性,建立有效的运营、管理机制的挑战。     

迈向新世纪的民间叙事研究——第13届国际民间叙事研究会大会综述

国际民间叙事研究会(ISFNR)第十三届大会于2001年7月16日至20日在澳大利亚墨尔本市举行。墨尔本大会是该会40余年历史上第一次在南半球举行的大会,由当地的维多利亚民间生活协会(Victoria Folklife Association)具体组织筹办。墨尔本是世界上最大的多元文化城市之一,在过去的50年里,有来自208个国家和地区、操151种语言的150余万移民定居在墨尔本为首府的维多利亚州,丰富多彩的当地和异域的民俗文化,给参会学者留下了深刻的印象。     

Young People's Narratives of Rural-Urban Difference

Although recent research by geographers interested in children and young people has examined young people's experiences in a range of both 'rural' and 'urban' environments, the significance of narratives of rural-urban difference for young people's identities has received comparatively little attention. This paper draws on theories of narrative identity to explore how narratives of rural-urban difference (and, in particular, the cultural hierarchies created and reinforced by these narratives) are significant for the construction of young people's identities. Using empirical material drawn from two separate studies in the USA, one from a mid-sized Sunbelt city and one from rural northern Vermont, the paper examines ways in which narratives of rural-urban difference are significant for young people's senses of self, processes of 'othering', and the constitution of local youth cultures.