Angels versus Devils: The Portrayal of Characters in the Gun Policy Debate

This research examines the role of the devil shift and angel shift in interest group rhetoric using the case of gun policy. The Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) suggests that the devil shift—whereby political actors characterize their opponents as more malicious and powerful than they actually are—is common in intractable policy debates. Through an analysis of e‐mails and press releases by two gun control organizations and two gun rights organizations, I examine how groups portray themselves and their opponents. I identify two dimensions relevant to these portrayals: (1) whether a character in a policy narrative is portrayed as good or evil, and (2) whether a character is portrayed as strong or weak. The findings indicate that while the devil shift is present, the angel shift—that is, the glorification of one's own coalition—is more common in gun policy groups' communications. Two alternative characterizations, which I call the angel in distress and the devil diminished, are also present. The use of these character portrayals varies significantly across political coalitions and as a function of communication purposes. The results suggest a need to reconceptualize character portrayals to better understand how they operate as narrative strategies in the NPF.     

Modern Slavery and Freedom: Exploring Contradictions through Labour Scandals in the Thai Fisheries

This paper examines the modern anti-slavery movement through the lens of the slavery scandal in Thailand’s fisheries sector. The slavery framing provoked a response on the part of governments, corporations and NGOs that produced improvements in working conditions. Nevertheless, we argue that while the slavery framing was effective in drawing attention and resources to solidarity groups, it provided a poor guide to action because of how it resolves complex and embodied relations of freedom and unfreedom into a simplified opposition that can be used to justify capitalism as the realm of freedom—rather than a cause of unfree labour or slavery. The Work in Fishing Convention (ILO C-188) has provided a guide for laws and regulations intended to improve working conditions in industrial fishing in Thailand and elsewhere, but it does not address slavery or human trafficking. It also frames work in fisheries as exceptional, and thus allows for working conditions that would be considered unacceptable on land. We suggest that critical scholars be cautious about working with a slavery framing, and that they might want to engage with working conditions in ways that start less with questions of unfree labour, and more with how capitalist labour practices can be constrained.     

‘Poor Gordon’: What the Australian Cult of Adam Lindsay Gordon Tells Us About Turn‐of‐the‐Twentieth‐Century Masculine Sentimentality

The popularity of the British‐born Australian poet and sportsman, Adam Lindsay Gordon (1833–1870), flowered after his death. Between 1870 and 1920, he was widely extolled as an exemplar of the Australian bushman and of British imperial masculinity alike. Fans lauded Gordon as a daredevil horseman who had lived in the bush in the Australian colonies’ roaring days. Fascinatingly, though, they expressed their enthusiasm for him in sentimental terms. This article shows that sentimental expressions of devotion to Gordon were part of a distinctive form of masculine sentimentality emerging in Western culture at the turn of the nineteenth century. The proponents of this sentimentality encouraged the members of Western imperial and settler‐colonial publics to sympathise with rugged bushmen such as Gordon – to collectively experience their sorrows, griefs and joys. In so doing, they helped to reinforce masculine and settler‐colonial power, since they elevated the sentiments of hardy masculine types at the expense of feminine ones. In Australia, sentimental representations of Gordon also helped divert attention from the violence committed by settlers against Aboriginal peoples. Based on the insight that masculinity and sentiment were profoundly intertwined in the day, this article calls for a new way of thinking about the relationship between these two phenomena in the turn‐of‐the‐century era.     

Diversity and diplomacy

ABSTRACT

Diplomats are the face of their country abroad. One way that a country can represent and benefit from its diversity is through the diversity of its diplomatic representatives. Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has made a sustained effort to increase the diversity of its workforce and has improved the representation of some groups: for example, the increased number of women in senior positions in recent decades. A case study of DFAT’s Indigenous Recruitment and Career Development Strategy (2007–2015) identifies the following key factors needed for such efforts to succeed: sustained effort, high-level support, availability of peer support and a willingness to adapt programs over time. While there are challenges in implementing a diversity strategy, such as resource constraints and the broader organisational culture, the Indigenous Recruitment and Career Development Strategy provides a positive model of how to increase diversity among a country’s diplomats.     

Protection,survival and growth: an analysis of international policy documents

This paper reports findings from the analysis of three international policy documents produced by a department of the UK Government, a leading British cultural organisation and a national arts development agency. The analysis takes an unorthodox stance, proposing that the international strategies are rationales for the self-protection, survival and growth of the government department, agency and museum, as opposed to the operational action plans that they first appear or are assumed to be. As such, they bear little relationship to formal policy and should be viewed as organisational stratagems. This research raises a number of questions about the nature, purpose and impact of policy and its making. Calling for a rethinking of key concepts within the field, this article returns to the fundamentals by asking what we mean by cultural policy and how we conceptualise and study it empirically.     

Southeast Asian Lives: Personal Narratives and Historical Experience

Intellectual cross-pollination between oral history and anthropologyis a long tradition. Editor and contributor Waterson arguesthat the influence of oral history on life narrative researchin anthropology intensified during the 1980s but needs freshemphasis. A primary goal in Southeast Asian Lives is to promotethe thoughtful use of oral history life narratives, especiallyto explore the influence of twentieth-century dramatic historicalchanges on individual lives and cultures. Her "Introduction:Analyzing Personal Narratives" is a useful and thought-provokingsurvey of theoretical issues on oral narratives, especiallyfor anyone doing cross-cultural     

The devolution of mudbrick: ethnoarchaeology of abandoned earthen dwellings in the Bolivian Andes

This ethno-geoarchaeological study considers the formation of archaeological deposits through a study of abandoned contemporary mudbrick structures on the Taraco Peninsula, Bolivia. The study site was a domestic compound with rooms for different functions that had been abandoned for over 50 years. Structures were in variable states of decay in terms of roof cover, walling integrity and abandonment fills. Geoarchaeological samples were collected from intact and weathered adobes, earthen hearths, mud plaster, and flooring. Adobes and mud plaster were locally derived from topsoil containing archaeological sediments with added gravel and plant temper. This study found a relatively light anthropogenic signature for decayed earthen houses.Rising damp exfoliated mud plaster despite un-mortared cobble wall foundations. Organic matter from roof fall attracted thriving soil faunal populations, which furthered site destruction through bioturbation, particularly packed earth floors. Sediments derived from weathered mudbrick retained little evidence of prior use as construction materials unless exposed to heat. Sediments exposed to high-temperatures produced the most distinctive rubified features but were structurally compromised. Isolated thermal features from decomposed adobe would not be distinguishable from other hearth types. Adobes exposed to low or moderate heat had few distinctive features in thin section. Intact adobes and floors that were not exposed to heat have fewer pores than natural sediments and distinctive grass inclusions. These adobes disarticulated into loose sediments when exposed to weathering. Adobe fall outside the crumbling structures blended into topsoil.This study sheds light on functional attributes of pre-Columbian construction practices. Thick, fine-textured sterile flooring is commonly encountered in the study region. This would control bioturbation from roof fall in a previous occupation enabling reconstruction in abandoned dwellings. In contrast to the contemporary dwelling, prehistoric mortared cobble foundations would resist rising damp. Cobbles without mortar may relate more to design and construction than durability. These contrasts between contemporary and prehistory construction practices reflect differences in the design, construction costs and functional use-life of adobe structures.