The Colour Purple? Reconsidering the Greek Word halourgos (ἁλουργός) and its Relation to Ancient Textiles

The aim of the present article is to reconsider the interpretation of the Greek word halourgos (?λουργ??) and its relation to textiles and purple dye by reinvestigating its recordings in Greek epigraphy and the papyri, as well as comparative examples from Greek literary sources, in the period from the fourth century bc to the seventh century ad — thus combining the source material from ancient Greece and the Greek-speaking part of the Roman world. This will illustrate the wealth of information one can get from the exploration of one single word: not only on the significance and appearance of textiles and garments in the ancient world from Greece to Egypt, but also on the diversity of colours and the subtleties in their use and terminology.     

Re-thinking festivals: a comparative study of the integration/marginalization of arts festivals in the urban regimes of Manchester,Copenhagen and Vienna

Arts festivals have been on the ascendant since the 1980s. However, while these are proliferating, it remains unclear as to whether they are also flourishing. The present narrow construction of festivals for marketing and economic purposes tends to disregard the festivals’ social and cultural potential, i.e. in terms of functioning as urban laboratories where new and alternative urban and cultural strategies can be tested and developed. In order to address these imbalanced conceptualizations of arts festivals within urban policy frameworks, the article is based on a comparative case study of festivals that try to function as urban laboratories. By examining how these festivals are integrated in or marginalized by the urban regime, and how this influences their operational conditions, the research elucidates the need to create new and more holistic policy frameworks to chart an equitable path for the future development of arts festivals.     

Doing the handfailure: At the margins of global capitalism

What can an account of manual labour in an increasingly precarious environment tell us about how humans build meaningful lives? Using an ethnographic example from the working relations on a fishing boat based out of the fishing community Tombo in Sierra Leone, I argue that shared bodily work entails possibilities of individual economic gain while simultaneously laying the foundations for solidarity and care. We find a playful competition between working mates at the core of this seeming contradiction. This article explores how people make a living and make a life, not simply despite their continued marginalization in political and economic terms, but through it. In the physically demanding shared labour of hauling a fishing net and learning how to compete for the fish by doing the handfailure, crew members forge relations of care and solidarity that stimulate individual aspirations while asserting the right to life by the sea.