Twelve Timely Tales: On Biographies of Pioneering Women Archaeologists

Breaking Ground, edited by Cohen and Joukowsky, presents biographies of twelve female American and European archaeologists who pursued fieldwork in the Old World in the late 19th and 20th centuries. Though accurately grounded in archival sources and careful citation, readers would need guidelines to theoretical and methodological issues to better understand the type of scholarly products that the various biographies represent. As explicit historiographic and gender discussions are avoided, focus is placed on these pioneers' individual experiences. The anthology provides a wide-ranging but somewhat fragmented understanding of the gendered character of the archaeological discipline.     

Gender,Technology and Local Culture: Tradition and transition in a Swedish municipality

The article is concerned with the gendering of technology, place and time and the interaction between them. The Swedish community of Lindesberg which changed its local policy towards industry and commerce in the 1980s is presented as a case-study. Before the changes, the local policy was restricted to traditionally male jobs; afterwards, it included jobs for women such as 'distance-working' or telecommuting opportunities. The expansion of the local policy is explained by the population's request for work opportunities for women also, although the local image is still very masculine. The old jobs were considered to be traditional but technically qualified jobs. The new jobs were described by the local authorities as new but technically qualified jobs. The first judgement was supported 'by everyone' while the latter was opposed 'by everyone'. The failure to keep the image of technically qualified work connected to the new opportunities for distance-working is explained by the gender labelling of the new work tasks. As they were given to women, and traditionally women are by definition lacking in technical competence, it was not possible to give the work tasks a label of technology and qualification.     

EVALUATION OF THE SEISMIC PERFORMANCE OF EXISTING RC BUILDINGS: II. A CASE STUDY FOR REGULAR AND IRREGULAR BUILDINGS

The results of a parametric study are presented, concerned with the evaluation of the structural overstrength, the global ductility and the available behaviour factor of existing reinforced concrete (RC) buildings designed and constructed according to past generations of earthquake resistant design codes in Greece. For the estimation of these parameters, various failure criteria are incorporated in a methodology established to predict the failure mode of such buildings under planar response, as described in detail in a companion publication. A collection of 85 typical building forms is considered. The influence of various parameters is examined, such as the geometry of the structure (number of storeys, bay width etc.), the vertical irregularity, the contribution of the perimeter frame masonry infill walls, the period of construction, the design code and the seismic zone coefficient. The results from inelastic pushover analyses indicate that existing RC buildings exhibit higher overstrength than their contemporary counterparts, but with much reduced ductility capacity. The presence of perimeter infill walls increases considerably their stiffness and lateral resistance, while further reducing their ductility. Fully infilled frames exhibit generally good behaviour, while structures with an open floor exhibit the worst performance by creating a soft storey. Shear failure becomes critical in the buildings with partial height infills. It is also critical for buildings with isolated shear wall cores at the elevator shaft. Out of five different forms of irregularity considered in this study, buildings with column discontinuities in the ground storey exhibit the worst performance. Furthermore, buildings located in the higher seismicity zone are more vulnerable, since the increase of their lateral resistance and ductility capacity is disproportional to the increase in seismic demand.