From Milgram to Zimbardo: the double birth of postwar psychology/psychologization

Milgram's series of obedience experiments and Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment are probably the two best-known psychological studies. As such, they can be understood as central to the broad process of psychologization in the postwar era. This article will consider the extent to which this process of psychologization can be understood as a simple overflow from the discipline of psychology to wider society or whether, in fact, this process is actually inextricably connected to the science of psychology as such. In so doing, the article will argue that Milgram's and Zimbardo's studies are best usefully understood as twin experiments. Milgram's paradigm of a psychology which explicitly draws its subject into the frame of its own discourse can be said to be the precondition of Zimbardo's claim that his experiment offers a window onto the crucible of human behaviour. This will be analysed by drawing on the Lacanian concepts of acting out and passage à l'acte. The question then posed is: if both Milgram and Zimbardo claim that their work has emancipatory dimensions - a claim maintained within mainstream psychology - does a close reading of the studies not then reveal that psychology is, rather, the royal road to occurrences such as Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib? The drama of a psychology which is fundamentally based on a process of psychologization is that it turns its subjects into homo sacer of psychological discourse.     

Wine and olive oil permeation in pitched and non-pitched ceramics: relation with results from archaeological amphorae from Sagalassos,Turkey

Pitch compounds are frequently identified inside archaeological ceramic vessels. As their presence might affect the permeation of oil or wine into the ceramic fabric, experiments were conducted in which the diffusion of lipids or polyphenols into pitched and non-pitched modern vessels was followed by chemical analysis. Results show that the polyphenols of wine can intrude into the ceramics even through a pitch layer. Consequently, the absence of polyphenols in archaeological sherds is not due to their inability to reach the ceramic matrix under the pitch layer. By contrast, a pitch layer is quite effective to avoid oil intrusion into the ceramic matrix. Thus, it seems logical that oil amphorae would have been coated with pitch at the inside prior to use. Experiments in which the pitched ceramic was simultaneously exposed to oil and wine, show that the wine makes the pitch more permeable for the lipid compounds. These experimental data are confronted with residue analysis results obtained on amphorae fragments excavated in Sagalassos, Turkey. Pitch and oil were frequently found together. Based on a polyphenol test, indications for wine storage could only be obtained for two vessels. Against this background, the possible uses of the Sagalassos amphorae are discussed, and the traditional association of pine pitch with wine storage in archaeological amphorae is critically assessed.     

Sustainability Standards and the Water Question

Increased global trade in agricultural commodities has boosted fresh water consumption. This export of ‘virtual water’, embedded in products sold abroad, has increasingly affected local communities and ecosystems, especially in arid regions. Recent initiatives to certify agricultural production are showing a rapidly growing interest in considering water issues within schemes of quality assurance, sustainable production and fair trade. This article scrutinizes current water sustainability certification schemes, and how they affect local water user communities. The authors use three notions of governmentality to examine water sustainability standards and how they aim ‘to conduct the conduct’ of water users: (1) standards as ‘production of truth’ and ‘mentalities’ that constitute systems of collective rationalities, values, norms and knowledge; (2) standards as networks that prescribe roles and establish power relations between companies and producers; and (3) standards as ‘techniques of visibilization’ that control practices and discipline producers. Private standards in general reinforce the political and market power of private sector agro‐food chains in local water management, to the detriment of local water user communities and national governments. However, sustainability certification could also potentially enable local, regional, national and international organizations of user communities to stake claims and negotiate to protect their water sources and livelihoods.     

Debating the reconciliatory use of heritage. European post-monumentalism versus regional national-monumentalism

In the 1990s, numerous religious monuments were destroyed in former Yugoslavia. National heritage formed one of the main targets of ethnic cleansing, literally removing the symbolic markers of ethnic groups. Responding to this destructive use of heritage, the Council of Europe and the European Commission introduced the Regional Programme on Cultural and Natural Heritage in south-east Europe. By means of this programme, they seek to change local perceptions on heritage and instigate debates about uses of the past. The premise is that only by learning from past conflicts will the region be able to continue its path to EU integration. However, progress of the programme is slow. Discussions about the interpretation of the past, let alone of a shared past, are largely avoided. The reconciliatory function of heritage that the two European actors aspire to is still hard to find. By taking Serbia as a case study, this article presents some of the typical difficulties that one can expect to encounter when heritage is used as an instrument for reconciliation in an area where reconciliation is still seen as a challenging and threatening process.     

Public parks in Ghent's City life: From expression to emancipation?

With three empirically based and theoretically framed case studies, this paper contributes to the understanding of how public spaces, more specifically urban parks, can mediate between different subgroups of society, such as women, seniors, gays and skaters, and how gender related connotations play an important role in these respects. This study draws upon a comparative analysis of three parks in Ghent, Belgium. The elements of analysis are the physical morphology, history, signification and the use by different kinds of park visitors. The article shows a new approach to design of public spaces.     

The IJsselcog project: from excavation to 3D reconstruction

The 15th‐century IJsselcog was lifted in 2016 from the river IJssel near Kampen (the Netherlands). From stern to bow and from starboard to portside about 70% of the original wooden hull is preserved. The combined approach of analogue documentation and photogrammetry enabled the research team to reconstruct the original ship in 2D and 3D, followed by a comprehensive study of its nautical characteristics. The hull volume and height were maximized by the shipbuilders using previously unknown construction elements in cogs, such as wales and vertical riders; shipbuilding traits that are generally applied to 16th‐ and 17th‐century carvel‐built cargo ships.     

Faecal biomarker and archaeobotanical analyses of sediments from a public latrine shed new light on ruralisation in Sagalassos, Turkey

A public latrine in the ‘Imperial Baths’ of Sagalassos was transformed into a dump site in the early Byzantine period. Several layers of urban waste, including ceramics, bones, glass and perhaps excrements were deposited on the floor. Faecal biomarker analyses and archaeobotanical analyses were conducted to reconstruct the history of the room. 5β-stanols of human origin, such as coprostanol, were found in the sewage channels together with mineralised plant remains, indicating a human faecal context. The botanical remains are furthermore representative of the Roman diet of the Sagalassians. Soil layers, deposited on top of the latrine floor and dating to the early Byzantine period, contained herbivore derived 5β-stanols, such as 5β-stigmastanol and epi-5β-stigmastanol. Additionally, a clear predominance of epi-5β-stanols over 5β-stanols showed that the animal dung has been subject to composting. In this period, the former latrine was clearly used as a manure production site which is further confirmed by stratigraphic evidence of large amounts of urban waste artefacts, which were commonly collected together with manure before application on the fields. The results of the present study support the theory that off-site potsherd scattering can be used as a proxy for manuring events. Additionally, the data show key evidence for vertical migration of 5β-stanols and presumably also for the leaching of bile acids.     

Molecular evidence for the mixing of Meat,Fish and Vegetables in Anglo‐Saxon coarseware from Hamwic,UK

Absorbed lipid residues from 24 seventh‐ to ninth‐century coarseware potsherds from the major Anglo‐Saxon trading centre of Hamwic (Southampton, UK) were analysed by gas chromatography – mass spectrometry (GC–MS) in order to reconstruct the dietary habits of its population. The results show that the vessels were used for preparing ruminant fats and leafy vegetables. In addition, evidence was found for a minor contribution of aquatic foods. Beeswax was found once and most probably relates to a sealing function or to honey. Remarkable features were: (i) the isomeric mixture of octadecenoic acid (C_18:1 Δ^{7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16}) and 8‐ to 16‐hydroxyoctadecanoic acid, and (ii) the co‐occurrence of C_17:1, C_19:1 and isoprenoid fatty acids. These features were proposed as biomarkers for ruminant and aquatic food sources, respectively. Furthermore, the carbonyl position distribution in mid‐chain ketones was used to identify mixtures of animal‐ and plant‐derived ketones. The paper highlights the difficulty in interpreting complex lipid signatures that show a mixture of various foods, as observed in the majority of the samples. This was linked to the preparation of stews or the recycling of vessels. The results are considered alongside ceramic usewear data and existing data relating to environmental remains recovered from the Hamwic excavations.     

The psychologization of humanitarian aid: skimming the battlefield and the disaster zone

Humanitarian aid's psycho-therapeutic turn in the 1990s was mirrored by the increasing emotionalization and subjectivation of fund-raising campaigns. In order to grasp the depth of this interconnectedness, this article argues that in both cases what we see is the post-Fordist production paradigm at work; namely, as Hardt and Negri put it, the direct production of subjectivity and social relations. To explore this, the therapeutic and mental health approach in humanitarian aid is juxtaposed with the more general phenomenon of psychologization. This allows us to see that the psychologized production of subjectivity has a problematic waste-product as it reduces the human to 'Homo sacer', to use Giorgi Agamben's term. Drawing out a double matrix of a de-psychologizing psychologization connected to a politicizing de-politicization, it will further become possible to understand psycho-therapeutic humanitarianism as a case of how, in these times of globalization, psychology, subjectivity and money are all interrelated.