Electoral redistricting and minority political representation in Canada and the United States

This article compares the political representation of visible minorities in Canada and the United States, focusing on differences in federal redistribution (redistricting) practices and constituency composition. Although the two countries both use territorially‐based electoral systems, they operate under different legal standards and institutional environments for the creation of ridings (districts). In the US, redistricting is a highly political process, yet must respect strict population equality standards. Litigation over redistricting is common, and courts adjudicate voting and representation under a constitutional system enforcing strong individual rights. In contrast, Canada's redistribution process is relatively nonpartisan, permits large population variances among ridings, places more emphasis on community rights, and is seldom subject to extensive court challenges. Despite these differences, the two countries exhibit striking similarities in the overall level of visible minority representation relative to population share. Conversely, Canada's population inequalities among ridings create a systematic disadvantage for visible minorities. Political attention to visible minority representation is stronger in the US, but the means to achieve it are constrained both by the judicial limits on group representation and the constitutional limits on the use of racial identity. Canada has a framework for political representation that could easily accommodate significant visible minority representation but lacks the political imperative to use it, in part because doing so would run counter to Canada's multicultural image of these groups as immigrants rather than as non‐white minorities.     

Architectural Aesthetics,Orientations, and Reuse at the Terminal Classic Maya Site of Ucanal,Petén,Guatemala

ABSTRACT

The Terminal Classic period (ca. a.d. 830–950/1000) in the Southern Maya Lowlands is known as a time in which investments in public architecture and vaulted masonry buildings began to wane. Masonry constructions have often been noted to be of poorer quality in comparison with previous phases. Moving beyond models of scarcity, this paper examines the aesthetics, meanings, and reorientations of architectural projects at the site of Ucanal, Petén, Guatemala during the Terminal Classic period. We highlight three processes that were central to the new architectural programs at the site: an emphasis on the aesthetics of wood, the reorientation of sacred space in residential contexts, and the fragmentation and reuse of buildings and monuments. Although these materials and processes are often associated with a loss of splendor, we suggest that they were part of an active architectural revisionism, one that remade history by reworking the old and reorienting the new.     

Mapping by matching: a computer vision-based approach to fast and accurate georeferencing of archaeological aerial photographs

To date, aerial archaeologists generally apply simple rectification procedures or more expensive and time-consuming orthorectification algorithms to correct their aerial photographs in varying degrees for geometrical deformations induced by the topographical relief, the tilt of the camera axis and the distortion of the optics. Irrespective of the method applied, the georeferencing of the images is commonly determined with ground control points, whose measurement and identification is a time-consuming operation and often limits certain images from being accurately georeferenced. Moreover, specialised software, certain photogrammetric skills, and experience are required. Thanks to the recent advances in the fields of computer vision and photogrammetry as well as the improvements in processing power, it is currently possible to generate orthophotos of large, almost randomly collected aerial photographs in a straightforward and nearly automatic way. This paper presents a computer vision-based approach that is complemented by proven photogrammetric principles to generate orthophotos from a range of uncalibrated oblique and vertical aerial frame images. In a first phase, the method uses algorithms that automatically compute the viewpoint of each photograph as well as a sparse 3D geometric representation of the scene that is imaged. Afterwards, dense reconstruction algorithms are applied to yield a three-dimensional surface model. After georeferencing this model, it can be used to create any kind of orthophoto out of the initial aerial views. To prove the benefits of this approach in comparison to the most common ways of georeferencing aerial imagery, several archaeological case studies are presented. Not only will they showcase the easy workflow and accuracy of the results, but they will also prove that this approach moves beyond current restrictions due to its applicability to datasets that were previously thought to be unsuited for convenient georeferencing.     

Capitalizing on Bare Life: Sovereignty,Exception, and Gender Politics

Abstract: This article examines the capital value of bare life as part of aid/development in (post)Taliban Afghanistan. I argue that the political production and spatial fixity of homo sacer “as the object of aid and protection” within specific geographic locations subsequently territorializes gendered bodies as a site for capital accumulation and exchange value through aid/development allocation. This occurs through a continual discursive reduction of “full or proper” human life to the remnants of bare life. This subjective reduction subsequently elicits capitalist‐modernity as a prime method for rescuing bare life and transferring it to an image (and imaginary) of western political and economic life. Gendered multiplicities of bare life emerge from variant forms of political and economic opportunity among aid/development workers and Afghan recipients. I argue that the discursive framing of bare life is situated as a site for (re)constructing rights through “western” frameworks infused with geopolitical and economic exchange value.     

Applying the Strategic‐Relational Approach to Urban Political Ecology: The Water Management Problems of the Baixada Fluminense,Rio de Janeiro,Brazil

Abstract: The complexity of water management requires an explanatory framework that is able to capture the multidimensionality of the relations between nature and society increasingly mediated by the state. The evolution of water problems in the Baixada Fluminense, a wetland area situated to the north of Rio de Janeiro, provides a paradigmatic example of how water management becomes incorporated into the fluid politics between state, nature and society. The local experience is examined by making use of the strategic‐relational approach (after Bob Jessop) expanded to urban political ecology. The concept of “trialectics” is proposed as an ontological representation of the interconnections between the state apparatus, class‐based relations and the socionatural elements of the water cycle. The empirical results show that, in a situation of precarious water supply, regular flooding and severe river degradation, state interventions have tended to favour certain groups and areas, which only intensifies the politicisation of water management.     

Translation Alignment: Actor‐Network Theory,Resistance, and the Power Dynamics of Alliance in New Caledonia

Abstract: This study of resistance to multinational mining in New Caledonia expands actor‐network theory's concept of translation by exploring ways that power dynamics affect alliances and the translations that both support and challenge them. Examining relationships among an indigenous protest group, environmentalist grassroots organizations, a human rights lawyer, the mining company, and the provincial government, I argue that power often requires alliances, mediated by compatible translations. However, if alliances are to succeed, at least temporarily, these translations must be made compatible through a process of translation alignment. Ironically, this alignment inevitably alters at least one of the translations, diminishing the power of the actor‐network that articulated it to achieve its original goals. This paper's findings also enhance radical geographical understandings of capitalism's infrastructure, as uneven development increasingly relies upon—yet finds it increasingly difficult to achieve—the alignment of local communities’ translations with those of the agents of industry.     

The fear of downward social mobility in late medieval England

ABSTRACT

Studies of medieval social mobility have tended to focus upon the success of socially ambitious, generally male, careerists. Alongside this tendency to use social mobility as a synonym for upward mobility has been a tradition of assigning the most agency in creating economic change to ambitious entrepreneurs. This article redresses these imbalances by exploring status anxiety and the fear of downward mobility in late medieval England. Using the surviving letter collections of the fifteenth century together with medieval literature, this article explores not only the importance of gender and the life cycle in shaping these fears but also the subtle distinctions between status anxiety, which often accompanied positions of authority, and a fear of imminent social decline, generally precipitated by financial difficulties. Through a reconsideration of demesne lessees and fraternities and guilds, it also shows how such anxieties and fears could affect both rural and urban economic developments.     

明代绘画中文人的艺术化生活

明代文人雅士对于精神生活的追求,体现在生活的各个方面,包括雅集、园林、玩古等,这些场面被真实地记录于明代绘画之中。明代"雅集"题材绘画的风格样式逐渐规范化和肖像化;园林山水画更具写实性;庋藏珍玩的题材使得画作品味更具高古之风。这表明在明代商品经济繁荣的大背景下,文人士大夫生活风尚逐渐趋于艺术化,这也体现出明代文人士大夫独特的生活和艺术品味。     

元青花瓷器制作中的差异现象研究——由高安馆藏元青花荷叶盖罐谈起

高安市博物馆藏的两件元代青花云龙纹荷叶盖罐均出土于江西省高安市一处元代窖藏中。从出土的情况并结合两件荷叶盖罐的造型、纹饰、制作工艺诸方面情况判断,此两件器物应为元代景德镇同一窑场、同一批次制作的产品,但经仔细观察,发现它们在造型、纹饰的描绘等细节上存有一定差异。在鉴定元青花瓷器时,不能仅凭一二点现象断定其真假,而应从造型、纹饰和工艺等方面对器物做全面分析再下定论。