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How Cases Speak to One Another: Using Translation to Rethink Generalization in Political Science Research
Full text linkRegardless of method, political scientists often seek to develop arguments that can be generalized to a population of cases. But is this the only way to think about how cases speak to one another? We advocate for a new way to think about how qualitative research produces broadly applicable insights: translation. Much like linguistic translation, the goal of translation in political science is to develop ideas that are intelligible in a different context, even as the context will change how an idea or political practice is interpreted or enacted. Translation offers at least three benefits. It allows us to (1) rethink how we form and deploy concepts; (2) rethink what a generalizable argument is by carrying parts of an argument, instead of entire causal chains to other cases; and (3) rethink how we conceptualize knowledge accumulation to include an abductive process where generating theory is the primary goal
Comparative Focus on Legacies of Enslavement in the United Kingdom and France
No full textBritain and France were key players in transatlantic colonial enslavement for centuries. The legacies of that past continue to affect millions of British and French citizens and descendants of colonized territories. Those legacies are tangible and intangible. They have shaped the way Britain and France chose to represent the past. This article examines how memory and legacies are related and how they emerge through tangible and intangible cultural heritage, thus providing spaces to remember the past. Tangible and intangible heritage constitute dynamic sites for contestation and liberation but can also be a volatile terrain for culture wars. In the 21st century, both countries are still unable to uproot racism fully and create a peaceful and collective memory about the period of enslavement
Where Resistance Murmurs: On Intimate Subjection and Everyday Power
No full textThis article introduces Intimate Subjection Praxis as a methodological and conceptual framework for analysing the subtle, affective and often ambiguous forms of resistance embedded in everyday life. Building on feminist, Marxist and poststructuralist anthropology, the framework examines how power is not only imposed through institutional or state mechanisms but internalised, inhabited and negotiated through practices of care, migration, kinship and cultural expression. Rather than privileging overt or publicly recognisable acts, Intimate Subjection Praxis attends to the quieter forms of political life that emerge through endurance, hesitation, relational labour and small acts that destabilise dominant norms. Drawing on ethnographic and cultural materials, the article demonstrates how resistance takes shape within intimate domains that conventional paradigms often overlook. In reframing and extending James C. Scott’s notion of infrapolitics, Intimate Subjection Praxis offers a methodological lens that recognises the political significance of gestures, silences and everyday negotiations, emphasising that the intimate is not a private retreat from power but a critical site where domination is lived and where dissent quietly persists
An Ethiopian Lucretius? Giusto da Urbino and the Origins of the Ḥatäta Zärʾa Yaʿɘqob Controversy
No full textThis paper sets out new archival breakthroughs concerning the context of the ‘discovery’ of the work that came to be known as the Hatata Zera Yacob, or, as it was known at the time, the Warqe. It presents new, previously unpublished evidence that, in the context of the mission to evangelise the Oromo people of southern Ethiopia, accusations were made against one Fr. Giusto da Urbino, to the effect that he had endorsed, edited, or even forged a heretical work of philosophy; and that senior Catholic authorities attempted to suppress the work. This has important implications for the historiography of the subsequent century-long debate over the authorship of the Hatata Zera Yacob. First, it pushes the origins of the authorship debate back by sixty years to 1856. Second, it reframes the initial context of the authorship debate from Italian colonial aggression in the twenties and thirties to interconfessional conflict between Ethiopian Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant actors at a pivotal moment in Ethiopian political history: the transition from the Zemene Mesafint to the ‘modern’ Ethiopian Empire with the coronation of Emperor Tewodros II. Third, it highlights various enduring blind spots in the scholarship with regards to Giusto da Urbino’s linguistic and scholarly pursuits as well as the range of intellectual and religious circles in which he moved in both Europe and Ethiopia. We examine the intellectual, religious, and political background of these archival discoveries, connecting missionary work with the establishment of scholarly collections in Europe
Landscapes of Survival and Insecurity: Environmental Security under Siege in Tembien, Northern Ethiopia
No full textArmed conflicts fundamentally reconfigure environmental security, forcing civilians to depend on terrain and ecosystems for physical safety, food and energy. This article examines how natural landscapes, indigenous biodiversity and traditional ecological knowledge functioned as environmental security infrastructure during the 2020–2022 war and siege in Tembien, northern Ethiopia. Drawing on interviews and repeated field observations, the study shows that mountains, incised gorges, forested cliffs and caves became life saving refuges from bombardment, while indigenous fruit trees and shrubs supplied critical food, medicinal products and biomass fuel. Households also relied on stone grinding mills and traditional stoves to sustain basic needs under blockade. Farmers harvested up to 2,115 kg of Ziziphus spina christi fruit per tree during the crisis, generating about 931.53 USD annually and buffering acute livelihood insecurity. However, the siege also drove overexploitation of restored landscapes, degrading forests, shrublands and fragile terrains. The article argues that wartime nature based coping simultaneously enhances short term human security and undermines longer term environmental security, and that urgent, ground based ecological restoration integrated into post war recovery and peacebuilding is essential to rebuild resilience and safeguard biodiversity
Heritage as emancipation?
No full textThis article examines the concept that unifies the studies of heritage dynamics presented in this special issue: emancipation. As we stress via the question mark at the end of the title, heritage as emancipation has a Janus-faced quality. Emancipation ostensibly presents a more optimistic metaphor for conceptualising heritage processes, practices, and performances. For instance, spotlighting precolonial, indigenous, or minority heritage can serve as a reclamation process (akin to land reclamation), a counterweight to colonial or dominant group heritage claims and narratives. Yet, as we argue, emancipatory heritage processes are inseparable from broader power dynamics and inequalities, and can simultaneously encompass disenfranchisements, dissonance, suppression, and even violence towards minority groups forging their own heritage projects
Substantiating a Religious Vision In Fifteenth-Century Tibet: The Auspicious Chorten of Chung Riwoche
No full textThis thesis is an in-depth study of the Auspicious Chorten of Many Doors of Chung Riwoche, a remarkable monument located at the western end of the Tsang (gtsang) region in Central Tibet. Constructed under the supervision of Tangtong Gyelpo (thang stong rgyal po) from 1449 to 1456, the chorten was built to realise one of his previous visionary revelations. The thesis first introduces the chorten as a public monument that transformed a borderland in western Tsang through the collective effort of various parties. Framing it within Tangtong Gyelpo’s own architectural visions and the geopolitical dynamics between Lato Jang, Lato Lho, and Lower Ngari, it explores the respective roles of the lead architect, artists, and patrons in creating a monument believed to confer liberation upon the mere sight of it. The thesis then considers Chung Riwoche Chorten as a monumental Multi-chambered Tashi Gomang, a symbolically charged and visually innovative architectural tradition that emerged in the 13th century and flourished during the 15th century. Through this study, the thesis proposes a changing function of this form of building and elucidates the embedded symbolic meanings that endured into the period of the chorten’s building. The Chung Riwoche Chorten’s position within this tradition is then examined in comparison to other chortens of the same type, and the features of the painted surfaces are scrutinised. Lastly, the thesis probes further into the content of the chorten, proposing it as a rare instance of Tibetan Buddhist canonisation amid religious rivalry and political competition. Through a close iconographic study of the surviving fragment of the painted mandalas and deity assemblies, the thesis reveals an extraordinary pictorial scheme following the Nyingma Nine Vehicles, as opposed to the orthodox Four-tantra hierarchy. Weaving together these threads, the thesis presents the Chung Riwoche Chorten as a unique monument imbued with layered meanings, mediated by multiple visual modes, religious taxonomies, and cultural memories
Development as life-making
Full text linkBuilding on critiques of Development as both immanent and intentional process, this contribution advances a vision of Development as life-making, grounded in a global feminist political economy approach centred on the concept of social reproduction. Moving beyond the methodological nationalism of many productivist paradigms, it redirects Development toward the regeneration of social, economic, and ecological conditions that sustain life; the dismantling of intersectional and existential inequalities; and the pursuit of social and economic justice. This new vision and definition restructure Development priorities along three axes: reproductive labour, life-sustaining sectors, and surplus populations. This reframing brings theoretical, political, and policy agendas into alignment with a project of planetary social justice, drawing on the diverse legacy of social reproduction feminism
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