Front doors to freedom,portal to the past: history at the Ellis Island immigration museum,New York

Heritage sites and museums play a significant role in the production and legitimization of historical knowledges and social identities. The potential for these institutions to act in ways that maintain deep‐rooted inequalities in the relative power of social groups has long been noted by academic commentators. A critique of the role of museums in reproducing ‘official’ histories is now well established. In this paper we explore new ways of conceptualizing and empirically exploring the production and politics of museum histories. By tracing the historical development of museums, we explore the power play between individual actors and institutions involved in production of the museum, and the multi‐vocal histories and landscapes which result from the interaction between these actors. We illustrate these arguments through a case study of Ellis Island Immigration Museum in New York Harbor.     

The rhetoric of consensus

Bob Hawke has used the notion of consensus in three distinct ways. The term was first employed as a polemic to discredit the Fraser government and establish Hawke's claim to the ALP leadership. It then became shorthand for the political program Hawke put forward during the 1983 election campaign. Finally — and perhaps most ambitiously — it sought a new philosophical twist for Australian politics. By 1985, however, the concept lacked credibility and was quietly abandoned as polemic, program or government philosophy. The rhetoric of consensus, for all its success, was short‐lived in its usefulness.     

Assessment of Relationships Between Precipitation and Satellite Derived Vegetation Condition Within South Australia

The normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) has evolved as a primary tool for monitoring continental‐scale vegetation changes and interpreting the impact of short to long‐term climatic events on the biosphere. The objective of this research was to assess the nature of relationships between precipitation and vegetation condition, as measured by the satellite‐derived NDVI within South Australia. The correlation, timing and magnitude of the NDVI response to precipitation were examined for different vegetation formations within the State (forest, scrubland, shrubland, woodland and grassland). Results from this study indicate that there are strong relationships between precipitation and NDVI both spatially and temporally within South Australia. Differences in the timing of the NDVI response to precipitation were evident among the five vegetation formations. The most significant relationship between rainfall and NDVI was within the forest formation. Negative correlations between NDVI and precipitation events indicated that vegetation green‐up is a result of seasonal patterns in precipitation. Spatial patterns in the average NDVI over the study period closely resembled the boundaries of the five classified vegetation formations within South Australia. Spatial variability within the NDVI data set over the study period differed greatly between and within the vegetation formations examined depending on the location within the state. ACRONYMS AVHRR Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer ENVSAEnvironments of South Australia EOS Terra‐Earth Observing System EVIEnhanced Vegetation Index MODIS Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectro‐radiometer MVC Maximum Value Composite NDVINormalised Difference Vegetation Index NIRNear Infra‐Red NOAANational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration SPOT Systeme Pour l’Observation de la Terre     

What are the concerns? Looking back on 15 years of research in cultural and creative industries

This paper surveys the research literature on cultural and creative industries (CCI). Academic discussions on CCI have grown extensively after the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) identified 13 sectors as constituting creative industries in the UK in 1998. The public has also become gradually convinced of the significance of CCI as being important for economic growth. We adopt a systematic and quantitative method to review the academic CCI literature. After collecting data, we first investigate the research fields under which the journals that publish CCI papers are categorized, finding that Business, Economics and Geography are the top three research fields. A second examination on the authors’ nationality indicates that their cultural background induces a different emphasis on their research field. We lastly apply the multiple main paths analysis to uncover the development trajectories of CCI research, with the result showing that the research agenda has changed along with a better understanding of the essential elements of CCI. Based on the literature on the main path, we observe the top five discussed themes: information technology, global cooperation, micro and fragmentary creative activities, remote places, and country/regional characteristics. Monitoring the discussions on these themes may help CCI researchers, creative workers, and policy makers to assess future directions for economic development.     

Designing a brave new world: eugenics, politics, and fiction

Aldous Huxley composed Brave New World in the context of the Depression and the eugenics movement in Britain. Today his novel is best known as satirical and predictive, but an additional interpretation emerges from Huxley's nonfiction writings in which the liberal hurmanist expressed some surprising opinions about eugenics, citizenship, and meritocracy. He felt that his role as an artist and public intellectual was to formulate an evolving outlook on urgent social, scientific, and moral issues. His brave new world can therefore be understood as a serious design for social reform, as well as a commentary about the social uses of scientific knowledge.