Environing technologies: a theory of making environment

ABSTRACT

The central proposal of this article is that environing technologies shape and structure the way in which nature becomes environment, and as such used, perceived and understood. The argument builds on the understanding that environment is the result of human intervention. Technology is here understood broadly as a terraforming practise, materially and conceptually. We suggest that the compound environing technologies enable us to see environmental change on multiple scales and in new registers. That technologies alter the physical world is not new; our contribution focuses on the conceptual, epistemological, economic and emotional appreciation of systems and aggregates of technologies that is part and parcel of material change. The environing technologies that enable such articulation and comprehension hold potential in the future transformation that our societies need to undergo to overcome the crisis of environment and climate.     

What is this bird? The quest to identify parrot remains from the Heyward-Washington House,Charleston, South Carolina

ABSTRACT

Excavations in the 1970s at the ca. 1772 Heyward-Washington House in Charleston, South Carolina, produced a rich and diverse archaeological assemblage spanning the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Among the vertebrate remains are four bones from a large member of the parrot family. We now believe the bird was a blue-fronted or turquoise-fronted amazon parrot (Psittacidae: Amazona aestiva), an animal originating in South America. Over the decades, we have studied the zooarchaeological signature of social identity in Charleston, the evolving urban environment, and the vast trade networks of the colonial port city, all of which are embodied in the remains of this single bird. The parrot leads to a discussion of social roles of captive birds in early Charleston, the eclectic interests of city residents, and the city’s global trade networks.     

The Catholic and the Communist Women's Press in Post-War Italy—An Analysis of Cronache and Noi Donne

This article aims to provide a systematic, comparative analysis of two of the main women's mass publications in order to trace continuities and changes in the development of women's role in the public sphere in Italy. The analysis begins with an elaboration of the social and political context, which is crucial for the understanding of media texts in general. It shows how the existence of only limited political spaces in post-war Italian society due to the polarisation of Catholicism and communism delayed both an open political discourse on women's conditions and the gradual development of an autonomous and lay feminist movement. Noi Donne of Union Donne Italiene (UDI) was closely aligned with and financed by the Italian Communist Party (PCI) and lacked any substantial autonomy until the early 1970s, while Cronache of the Catholic women's organisation Centro Italiano Femminile (CIF) was a faithful instrument for the propagation of those Catholic concepts of femininity that were redefined and reinforced by the Vatican in the Catholic publication Civiltà Cattolica.     

Réalisme et mythologie de la raison d’État

Sans résumé Laurie Catteeuw, née en 1974, est actuellement attachée temporaire d’enseignement et de recherche à l’école des hautes études en sciences sociales. Elle a récemment soutenu sa thèse, Censures et raisons d’état aux origines de la modernité politique. Dialogues franco-italiens des XVI ^e et XVII ^e siècles. Ses recherches portent sur l’histoire de la pensée politique des époques moderne et contemporaine. Elle a notamment codirigé avec Fran?ois Bordes, le Cahier Kostas Papa?oannou. L’amitié, les travaux et les jours (Paris, Acedia, 2004) et publié plusieurs articles dans différentes revues. ? Censure, raison d’état et libelles diffamatoires à l’époque de Richelieu ? vient de para?tre dans les Papers on French Seventeenth Century Literature (vol. XXXVI, n^o 71, juin 2009).     

Introduction: global perspectives on gender–water geographies

This introduction summarizes the work featured in the themed section of Gender, Place and Culture titled ‘Global geographies of gender and water’. It brings into dialogue scholars investigating a variety of gender–water relationships at different scales, including: poisoned waterscapes; fishing practices; and the implications of neoliberal water policies. The authors featured purposefully engage with the multi-faceted ways in which experiences, discourses and policies of water are gendered, and how gender is created through processes of access, use and control of water resources. In bringing these articles together, we have consciously aimed to support inclusive, feminist collaborative work and to prioritize diversity.     

Ethnodevelopment: Social Movements, Creating Experts and Professionalising Indigenous Knowledge in Ecuador

Indigenous social movements have become important development actors in recent years. As the targets of "socially inclusive" neoliberal policies and protagonists in global anti‐capitalist movements, the position of these social movements in mainstream development is often ambivalent. This ambivalence reflects contradictions between economic neoliberalism and goals of social development as well as different understandings and practices in development‐with‐identity. We explore the relationship between the institutionalisation of ethnodevelopment and the creation of indigenous experts through indigenous social movements' engagement in popular training that emphasises indigenous knowledge. Drawing on Michael Watt's notion of governable spaces of indigeneity, we examine how institutionalisation is occurring in a range of ways that establish new alliances and cut across scales. Analysing the politics occurring at the development policy interface, we focus on the processes of representation, negotiation and embodiment involved in indigenous professionalisation, as activism shapes "scaled up" policy making.     

Reviews

ARMS CONTROL AND THE ATLANTIC ALLIANCE. Karl W. Deutsch. John Wiley & Sons, 1967. Pp. 167. $5.95.

THE STRATEGY OF CIVILIAN DEFENCE. NON‐VIOLENT RESISTANCE TO AGGRESSION. Adam Roberts (ed.). Faber and Faber, 1967. Pp. 320. £Stg. 2.2.0.

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: A GENERAL THEORY. J. W. Burton. Cambridge University Press, reprinted 1967. Pp. 288. £Stg. 0.12.6.

GOVERNMENT AND REVOLUTION IN VIETNAM. Denis J. Duncanson. Oxford University Press for R.I.I.A., 1968. Pp. 442. $9.50.

BIG VICTORY: GREAT TASK. Vo Nguyen Giap. Introduction by David Schoenbnm. Pall Mall, 1968. Pp. xvii + 120. $6.15.

PAPERS ON MODERN JAPAN 1968. D. C. S. Sissons (ed.). Department of International Relations, Research School of Pacific Studies, ANU, 1968. Pp. 137. $2.10.

THE JAPANESE SOCIALIST PARTY AND NEUTRALISM. A STUDY OF A POLITICAL PARTY AND ITS FOREIGN POLICY. J. A. A. Stockwin. Melbourne University Press, 1968. Pp. xv + 197. $6.50.

JAPAN'S RADIO WAR ON AUSTRALIA 1941–45. L. D. Meo. Melbourne University Press, 1968. Pp. 300. $6.75.

AUSTRALIA SINCE FEDERATION. Fred Alexander. Nelson, 1967. Pp. 323; 46 illustrations and 4 maps. $4.95.

RUSSIA 1917. THE FEBRUARY REVOLUTION. George Katkov. London, Longmans, 1967. Pp. 489. $6.30.