Of squatting amid capitalism on Yangon's industrial periphery

Across major cities throughout the world, inflated real-estate markets continue to exacerbate crises of affordable housing. Amid such conditions, squatting has emerged as a means to claim urban residence while bypassing the rule of property, resulting in densely populated informal settlements stretched along urban peripheries, most notably in the Global South. But in what respect might squatting be said to have anti-capitalist content? But does the challenge squatting poses to private property mean the practice is unambiguously anti-capitalist? The case presented here illustrates how squatting – initially a challenge to the rule of private property – becomes imbricated with wider relations of extraction and rule and with the broader capitalist context more generally.     

A NEW ORIENTALISM?

Jean-Louis Schefer's study takes as its point of departure Uccello's predella, Profanation of the Host. The painting in question has generally been interpreted within the context of medieval anti-Semitism. However, Schefer argues that the meaning of the work, and of numerous other representations of this particular miracle, must be referred ultimately to the codification by Charlemagne of the dogma of the Real Presence. Uccello's painting in effect makes manifest the requirement that the profaned host should reveal its nature through the gushing of blood. This also involves a political significance, since the Carolingian theology organized around the consecrated host stands in direct opposition to the Byzantine theology of the icon. Schefer's argument leads him to make a thorough investigation not only of the many iconographic precedents, but also of some key Latin texts such as the Libri Carolini , which are published in a French translation. It also advances a methodology that is strikingly at variance with some of the more simple-minded attempts of historians to crack the codes of a complex visual tradition. One of its most original aspects is the new light that the overall thesis casts upon extremely well-known texts like The Merchant of Venice and Dracula. Thus the tendency to identify vampirism as an East European phenomenon, already discernible in Western sources in the eighteenth century, is shown to be closely linked to the historical extension of the myth of Profanation of the Host. In exploring the outcomes of this doctrinal split between East and West, Schefer has identified a deep fault-line in post-antique European history whose consequences are far from being understood at the present day.     

The Design and Development of a Closed Chamber for the in‐situ Quantification of Dryland Soil Carbon Dioxide Fluxes

This paper describes the design features and capabilities of a portable automated in‐situ closed chamber (ISCC) for the quantification of CO₂ fluxes in dryland soils where both photosynthetic and respiratory components may be associated with a cyanobacterial crust. The processes of CO₂ flux in dryland soils are briefly described in order to clarify the conditions that make quantification of these fluxes problematic. The instrumentation currently available for in‐situ soil CO₂ flux measurements is then reviewed demonstrating their inadequacies for the dryland environment. The ISCC described here is a member of the closed or enrichment class of soil respiration chambers. The ISCC, however, features an optical window possessing high (>90%) transmission in the photosynthetic active region (PAR) of the solar irradiance spectrum, permitting observations of photosynthesis. The ISCC possesses automatic venting and purging so that gaseous concentrations inside the chamber do not change from ambient sufficiently to significantly affect diffusion. The ISCC features both active and passive cooling employing internal solid‐state Peltier coolers and external aluminised Mylar respectively. This avoids severe disturbance of the microclimate within the chamber due to admission of high fluxes of PAR and permits in‐situ operation under a wide range of ambient field temperatures (~ ?5 to 40°C). Sensors internal to the chamber monitor temperature, relative humidity, irradiance and pressure. In this implementation the ISCC is coupled to a portable gas chromatograph (Agilent GC‐3000) to sample the chamber atmosphere. Indicative data for Kalahari Sand soils of Botswana are presented as an illustration of the general performance characteristics.     

Making progress in global health: the need for new paradigms

This article takes the state of health in the world today as the starting point for a backward look at the trajectory that has led to our current position and speculation about prospects for improved global health in the future. Our model of social development and its dominant value system, which has promoted scientific progress but has also brought about great social, economic and health instability, is interrogated. This leads to questions such as what it means to be healthy and what the practice of medicine is about. Three potential scenarios for global health in the future are outlined. It is suggested that deep introspection about our current value system is required to achieve a paradigm shift that could reverse current trends and lead both to improvements in health globally and to less human insecurity. The authors conclude that while we have the material resources to achieve ambitious goals we may lack the moral and political will to do so. An expanded discourse on ethics and human rights—as well as on the limits of what is politically possible— may provide the impetus to drive change towards an improved global economic system and better health globally.     

Towards an encompassing perspective on nationalisms: the case of Jews in Turkey during the Second World War, 1939–45

ABSTRACT. This article focuses on the plight of the Jews in Turkey during the Second World War, with the intention of analysing specific historical events through the lenses of leading theories of nationalism. First we review recent developments in historiography that contribute the framework for understanding both the hermeneutical possibilities and limitations when addressing historical texts. Then we employ three theories of nationalism – the ethno‐symbolist, instrumentalist and social constructivist – as a means of analysing and interpreting the historical events of the Jewish predicament vis‐à‐vis the Republic of Turkey. We conclude by suggesting what impact our findings may have on the narratives from this time period, and the way in which we can understand narratives today.