From Neo-Francoist Memory to Political Feeling in Narratives of Unearthing: Sánchez Dragó's Muertes Paralelas (2006) and Andrés Trapiello's Ayer no más (2012)

This article analyzes the novels Muertes paralelas and Ayer no más as representatives of two clearly defined perspectives within the Spanish twenty-first century narrative production on unearthing the past of Francoism. The symbolic construction of unearthing permits an investigation of the remnants of a neo-Francoist vision of the legacy of the civil war, while opening the view of a political feeling by which personal memory inserts itself most profoundly as a commitment to a more comprehensive and lasting closure of the past.     

The Impact of Forum Interdependence and Network Structure on Actor Performance in Complex Governance Systems

One of the main assumptions of the Ecology of Games Framework (EGF) is that governance processes are heavily affected by the interactions among policy actors that take place in multiple decision‐making forums, which often function interdependently. In this article, we use data collected in the Tampa Bay and California Delta water governance systems to examine how “biophysical interdependence”—the extent to which forums deal with interconnected policy problems—impacts the costs that actors face when they participate in forums, which in turn can affect their performance in them. Furthermore, we examine how the individual information exchange networks that actors have (i.e., their ego‐networks) can mediate the previous relationship. We find that actors with networks that have more closure are better able to mitigate the costs associated with participating in biophysically interdependent forums, thus leading to better in‐forum performance. Our findings shed new light on the relationship between structure and function in complex ecologies of games.     

Large fontanelles in an early 20th century rural population from South Africa

Unusually large fontanelles were found in four skeletons of children from a cemetery in the North West Province of South Africa. These remains date from the last decade of the 19th and first half of the 20th century. Three small infants (two of about nine months, and one of about six months) and one child (of about three years) were affected. In the case of the three‐year‐old child pathologic changes were evident on the rest of the skeleton, which probably resulted in the delayed closure. The cause of the unusually large fontanelles in the other three individuals is less clear. Some possibilities are discussed, but it seems as though general hardship and malnutrition, congenital syphilis or other infectious diseases like rubella syndrome may be involved. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Shame and the Embodiment of Boundaries

ABSTRACT Attention to the debilitating feelings of unease, discomfort and anxiety which are the concomitants of everyday encounters and negotiations of Kooris at the mainstream interface brings an appreciation for the lived experience of the colonised minority and throws into relief complex struggles over meaning, manners, personal values, social allegiance and cultural survival. This paper focuses on the habituation and strategic deployment of shame at the racial divide. Koori subjectivities, bodily dispositions and emotional registers are found to be informed both by traditional orientations and by the hegemonic ends of the dominant order.     

Mourning Geography: A Punctum,Strathclyde and the Death of a Subject

Abstract

This article documents the formal consultation held at the University of Strathclyde in 2011 which concluded with a decision to withdraw the geography programme from the academic curriculum. In examining the remains of this consultation, the article offers an understanding of the reactions of staff and students to the proposed closure through the theoretical work on mourning by Roland Barthes and Jacques Derrida. With use of the notions of punctum and studium in particular, it tracks the discursive location, if not definition, of what was and is poignant about geography at this higher education institution.     

HISTORY WRITING WITHOUT CLOSURE

In The Work of History: Constructivism and a Politics of the Past, Kalle Pihlainen pays tribute to Hayden White's work on narrative constructivism through a comprehensive and critical evaluation of his work. The book's seven chapters are based on previously published and reworked essays, starting with Pihlainen's 2013 essay on narrative truth and ending with his 2006 essay on the confines of the form. The Work of History is timely in light of some world political leaders’ apparent immunity to facts, their use of history, and the role of power, as Pihlainen also discusses the ethics and politics of historical constructivism (xiii). At the same time, the book is “a meta-critical enterprise,” as White states in his foreword (x): it scrutinizes and explains White's work and its reception, including the debates on the production of knowledge, the ontological status of historiography, the various representations of history, and the kinds of audiences historians envision. Although narrative constructivism seems a bit passé, Pihlainen wants to further elaborate this theoretical approach to disentangle and explain some fundamental misconceptions about it that still exist among historians. One misconception is that constructivism inherently neglects the ethical impulse and supposedly lacks the potential for political engagement. Pihlainen urges historians and theorists to find ways of becoming politically committed in their writings and to challenge their readers to do the same.     

A Visit to Burma

ABSTRACT

Closure of small schools has been a contentious policy issue, addressed most recently in the Schools Consultation (Scotland) Act 2010. Local authorities are currently delivering public service under great financial pressure and, given the high per capita costs of running small schools, have often sought to close them. One of the arguments for retaining small schools is the purported contribution that they make in maintaining rural community vibrancy. However, the evidence base for retaining small schools as ‘the heart of the rural community’ is largely untested, and such evidence as there is suggests that school closures have a modest effect on community vibrancy. School catchment studies show a long-term pattern of adjustment to demographic changes but this process may be curtailed by government policy in Scotland. A solid employment base and affordable housing are deemed by many to be more important factors in rural socio-economic wellbeing than the presence or absence of a primary school.     

Cranial suture closure and its implications for age estimation

Three age estimation techniques using ectocranial and/or endocranial suture closure are tested on a sample of known age from Spitalfields, London in order to determine the value of cranial suture closure as an indicator of age at death. The three techniques are those proposed by Acsádi and Nemeskéri, Meindl and Lovejoy and Perizonius. Results indicate that the Acsádi and Nemeskéri technique, which is based on endocranial sutures, can be used to distinguish young and middle-aged individuals in the Spitalfields sample but gives no information for crania over the age of 50 years. Age estimation using the Meindl and Lovejoy and Perizonius (Old system) techniques, which use ectocranial sutures, was found to be subject to a number of complicating factors, of which sexual dimorphism in the rate and pattern of closure is the most significant. A method of estimating age at death based on both endocranial and ectocranial suture closure is developed on the basis of the Spitalfields sample. The technique attempts to overcome some of the problems associated with both intra- and interpopulation variation in cranial suture closure. For a truly accurate age-estimation technique based on cranial suture closure we would need to know more about the causes and functions of suture closure in human populations.