Early Anglo-Saxon Gold Braids

GOLD threads have been found in many Anglo-Saxon and continental Germanic graves of the period from the 5th to the 8th century A.D. (see catalogue, pp. 66 ff.). Early recognized as the remains of costly woven decorations to headdresses and the borders of garments, during the 19th century particularly they attracted much interest and discussion, some of it very pertinent.¹ Technical attention, however, of the kind required by their fragmentary state, was not then available, and it is only comparatively lately that the discovery of fresh examples in some newly excavated Frankish graves has caused a revival of interest in the subject, with the hopeful prospect of detailed technical studies to come from the continent in the future.     

Community Volunteering as Neoliberal Strategy? Green Space Production in Berlin

Abstract: The task for critical urban research is to analyze processes of neoliberalization “on the ground”. This paper examines—based on original empirical research—in how far the outsourcing of former local state responsibilities for public services and urban infrastructure is expressed in the promotion of community gardening in Berlin (Germany). It shows the contradictory outcomes: on the one hand, a failing strategy of outsourcing towards residents and the opening up of opportunity structures for other interests. On the other hand it shows how far the emergence of open green spaces maintained by volunteers can only be understood against the background of “roll‐back” neoliberal urban politics and that their rationality cannot be separated from “roll‐out neoliberalism”.     

Correspondence(s) in The Pen Friend by Ciaran Carson

In The Pen Friend published in 2009, Ciaran Carson draws upon the form of the epistolary novel, albeit in a somewhat non-conformist way. How to convey reality through language, or languages – photography, painting among others – is once more the purpose of the writer, even though subject and form have been renewed. This article aims at showing how the reader is transported into a world full of correspondences, a world transfigured by the power of language.     

Comment

This comment responds to Hibba Abugadeiri's ‘The Scientisation of Culture: Colonial Medicine's Construction of Egyptian Womanhood, 1893–1929’ and Laura Bier's ‘Modernity and the Other Woman’: Gender and Citizenship in the Egyptian Press, 1952–1970’. Both articles contribute to our understandings of the connections between constructions of gender identity, national identity, and imperial identity. After directing some questions to each author individually, this comment examines the ways in which the two articles combine to raise questions about the power of the press in an emerging public sphere, the importance of claims to modernity in assertions of national independence and the complexity of identity formation in periods of intense political change.     

Motives and opportunities for domestication: an ethnoarchaeological study in southwest Ethiopia

Farmers of southwest Ethiopia are currently transplanting yams (Dioscorea cayenensis) from wild contexts to home gardens. Ethnoarchaeological study of this practice can inform considerations of agricultural origins in prehistoric times by revealing motives and opportunities that shape decisions to adopt wild-growing plants. In one part of the study area, case studies demonstrate that decisions to manipulate yams may arise mainly among individuals of a particular gender or household composition. Comparisons across the study area illustrate the effects of slight variations in environment and human mobility upon adoption of wild-growing yams. The social and environmental factors that favor or impede manipulation of yams are highly specific and nuanced, and operate on both intra- and inter-community levels.     

Excluded citizens? Participatory research with young people from a ‘failing’ school community

This paper examines a participatory community research project with young people from the ‘wrong side of the tracks’ in a provincial New Zealand town. This school-based project aimed to celebrate the expertise and insights of these young citizens by profiling their digital stories to their community. However, the failure to achieve this goal compelled the researcher to confront the ‘presentist’ assumptions underpinning this project. A re-analysis of the lingering impact of historic processes and practices of exclusion in this divided town drew attention to the temporal, spatial and relational nature of citizenship. The paper proposes that deeper recognition be given to the ‘webs of social relations’ (Arendt, Hannah. 1968. Between Past and Future: Eight Excercises in Political Thought. New York: Viking Press) that citizenship acts are constituted within, alongside the lingering impact of historical legacies of socio-spatial exclusion. Recognising these aspects will enrich our understandings of citizenship as well as enhance the transformative potential of participatory community research.