Can Earthquake Loss Models be Validated Using Field Observations?

The occurrence of a damaging earthquake provides an opportunity to compare observed and estimated damage, provided that detailed observations of the earthquake effects are made in the field. A question that arises is whether such comparisons can provide the basis for validation of an earthquake loss model. In order to explore this issue, a case study loss model for the northern Marmara region has been set up and the losses have been calculated for various ground-motion fields that arise when different assumptions are made about the ground-motion variability. In particular, the influence of removing the inter-event variability for a scenario earthquake and modeling spatial correlation among ground motions is studied. Further analyses are conducted assuming that a number of accelerograms are available within the region and that knowledge of spatial correlations among ground motions can therefore be used to better predict the motions at sites in the vicinity of the recording stations. The results demonstrate that unless one has a dense network of accelerographs (commensurate with the geographical resolution of exposure), then the variability in the losses cannot be sufficiently reduced to allow validation of the loss model.     

Mapping the thematic landscape of Dabiq magazine

This article presents a thematic network analysis of Dabiq—a prominent English-language e-magazine produced by the Islamic State. Through formal qualitative analysis, the article examines the e-magazine’s first 13 issues in order to better understand its structure, evolution and intended audiences. In terms of structure, thematic network analysis provides a comprehensive and holistic understanding of Dabiq’s themes, identifying a range of concerns that are broader and more complex than is often supposed by academic and professional commentators. In terms of evolution, this analysis reveals a thematic landscape that has demonstrated considerable dynamism over four distinct phases throughout the magazine’s publication. In terms of understanding audiences, it is argued that Dabiq has been particularly engaged with the manipulation of group-level identities in an apparent attempt to garner support from global audiences. Themes related to allegiance, the group’s strengths and victories, and territorial expansion all feature consistently and prominently. They seek to create an in-group identity centred on victory, and to frame the Islamic State’s expansion and successes as a group achievement on behalf of Islam itself. Additionally, Dabiq provides the Islamic State with an opportunity to justify its actions and its religious authenticity to a broader Muslim audience, and thus provide the Islamic State with legitimacy beyond its borders. Recognising these thematic dynamics will be important for those engaged in counter-messaging and the development of counternarratives.     

The Hawārī of Socotra, Yemen

Hawārī are traditionally logboats carved from a single tree into a double-ended vessel which can be propelled by either sails or paddle. Hawārī can be found throughout the Indian Ocean from India through to East Africa, yet little is known about this ubiquitous vessel. The aims of this research are to address this lacuna in our knowledge by documenting the rich source of hawārī present on the island of Socotra, Yemen.
© 2009 The Author     

Assembling Justice Spaces: The Scalar Politics of Environmental Justice in North-east England

Abstract:  In contrast to the US environmental justice movement, which has been successful in building a networked environmentalism that recognises—and has impacted upon—national patterns of distributional (in)equalities, campaigns in the UK have rarely developed beyond the local or articulated a coherent programme of action that links to wider socio-spatial justice issues or effects real changes in the regulatory or political environment. Our purpose in this paper is to extend research which explores the spatial politics of mobilisation, by attending to the multi-scalar dynamics embedded in the enactment of environmental justice (EJ) in north-east England. It is an approach that is indebted to recent work on the scalar politics of EJ, and also to the network ideas associated with actor-network theory (ANT)-inspired research on human–nature relations. Our account provides preliminary reflections on the potential for an "assemblage" perspective which draws together people, texts, machines, animals, devices and discourses in relations that collectively constitute—and scale—EJ. To conclude, and building upon this approach, we suggest future research avenues that we believe present a promising agenda for critical engagement with the production, scaling and politics of environmental (in)justice.     

The Red Guards of Paris: French Student Maoism of the 1960s

This article examines how Maoist theory and practice were imported to France during the 1960s. A syncretic phenomenon, as notions developed in the Chinese cultural context were adapted to the very different Gallic situation, French Maoism proved to be especially influential among students at the École normale supérieure at the rue d’Ulm in Paris, where the Marxist theoretician, Louis Althusser, was teaching. Maoist philosophy facilitated critiques of the Moscow-aligned French Communist Party and its student union; it enabled Althusser's rethinking of the Marxist tradition, and it ultimately provided ammunition for his students’ eventual break with his “theoreticism.” Maoism's fecund contribution to French intellectual culture in the 1960s, helping to lay the groundwork for the events of May 1968, derived principally from its dual theoretical and practical nature. This article highlights two specific Maoist tenants—the inevitably violent nature of revolution and the ersatz-empiricist method of the “investigation”—and suggests how, after 1968, French Maoism ultimately surrendered the former as the latter proved more useful to direct democratic politics.