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The Real 'Young Russian': In Conversation with the Daughter of Boris de Chroustchoff
Get PDFD. H. Lawrence's 'Women in Love' (1919) contains one of literary modernism's most notable discussions of 'primitive' art. 'Women in Love' being clearly a roman à clef, some attempts have been made to ascertain the model for the 'young Russian', Maxim Libidnikov, who informs this discussion - hitherto without success. This article summarises my finding of that model - one Boris de Chroustchoff - who paid Lawrence, and therefore modernist literature, the service of introducing him to African traditional art. The methodology is my interview of Boris's daughter, Natasha, and background research in the British Museum, Pitt Rivers Museum, and relevant literature. The result is not only that a conundrum in Lawrence studies has been solved, but light has been shed on the kinds of means whereby modernist authors were made aware of, gained access to, and were influenced by, traditional art
¿Quién “manda” en el espacio virtual en México? Soberanía, Democracia y Gobernanza Digital.
Get PDFLa soberanía en el campo de las relaciones internacionales, como le determinó Spehen Krasner hace más de 30 años, puede todavía entenderse como la “Hipocresía Organizada”; un compromiso imperfecto entre institucionalización y anarquía, donde los actores políticos se adhieren al concepto cuando les ofrece beneficios, pero lo violentan cuando no. Sin embargo, a nivel nacional la soberanía depende tanto de la autoridad del estado (su capacidad represiva) como de su capacidad afectiva (nacionalismo). La emergencia de nuevas tecnologías nos lleva a cuestionar de alguna manera ambas dimensiones integrativas del estado. Mucho se ha escrito ya sobre la inaplicabilidad del concepto de soberanía – el monopolio de la violencia no existe ni puede existir – en el ciberespacio, y también sobre las consecuencias negativas que puede tener para la democracia el intentar ejercer soberanía en el terreno virtual. China y otros países autoritarios ofrecen modelos antidemocráticos que buscan subyugar a las redes sociales y a los grandes proveedores de servicios digitales a la voluntad del estado. O si son incapaces de lograrlo, el estado puede entonces crear herramientas de vigilancia y penetración que le permitan controlar, hostigar y localizar elementos que considere contrarios a sus intereses. México parece acercarse, en algunos sentidos, a este modelo autoritario imperfecto. El estado mexicano se ha convertido, como en otras partes de América Latina, en una de las principales fuentes de amenazas de ciberseguridad para sus ciudadanos. El estado mexicano, a través de su capacidad represiva, busca de esta manera fortalecer su autoridad en el ciberespacio. Pero esto, paradójicamente, debilita su capacidad afectiva; México no puede ejercer autoridad absoluta en el espacio digital, y es aún menos probable que pueda desarrollar una dimensión afectiva en un espacio que es necesariamente transnacional. México se encuentra entre diferentes modelos de gobernanza digital. Por una parte, México busca ejercer control sobre este nuevo “elemento” del estado dónde la soberanía tradicional es inaplicable e incompatible con principios democráticos. Por otro lado, ningún país con las características de México puede adoptar un modelo libertario que deje la regulación de las redes a si mismas
The Regime Complex for Digital Trade in Asia and China’s Engagement
Get PDFThe rapid development of information and communication technologies over the past two decades has resulted in profound transformations in traditional economic and trade activities, leading to the scaling of digital trade across the Asian region and beyond. Drawing on the conceptual framework of the regime complex, this article seeks to delineate the main features of regional digital trade governance in the Asian region and China’s engagement with the regime-building process in this policy field. It demonstrates that the digital trade governance landscape in Asian countries comprises a collection of partially overlapping and non-hierarchical regimes, where different regional actors are formulating competing visions and approaches to digital trade governance. In addition, the dynamic nature of the digital trade regime complex in Asia and China’s evolving approach to digital trade governance are mutually constitutive. By selectively liberalizing in certain contexts while remaining conservative in others, China contributes to a more complex and less cohesive regional digital trade environment. China’s emphasis on standard-setting efforts and security considerations introduces additional complexities to the regime complex, potentially impeding the development of comprehensive governance regimes for digital trade in the region
'Introduction', Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained
No full textA new introduction to a Vintage Classics edition of Paradise Lost, published to mark the 350th anniversary of John Milton's death
'Speculum Mentis' and 'Experience and its Modes': A Comparison
No full textThis article seeks to compare R. G. Collingwood’s Speculum Mentis (1924) with Michael Oakeshott’s Experience and its Modes (1933). To do so it pursues two strategies. First, it sets both texts in the context of late nineteenth and early twentieth century philosophy, outlining the major challenges to the Idealist tradition in this period – since this was the tradition within which Collingwood and Oakeshott worked. In particular, it draws attention to the rise of positivism, namely the belief that properly devised scientific procedures offered the only correct way of understanding both natural and human phenomena. Then it seeks to delineate the nature of neo-Kantianism, an attempt to retain a unified approach to natural and social sciences – whilst admitting that there are also some important differences between them. Furthermore, it also notes the importance of the advent of more radical pluralism – in other words that there is no rational way of mediating between natural and social sciences – and the related development of Lebensphilosophie which advocated a more intuitive and practical approach to human decision-making, rejecting the ability of philosophy to adjudicate over such questions. Second, the article examines the different ways in which Collingwood and Oakeshott responded to these challenges to reassert the plausibility of philosophical Idealism, and in particular the degree to which they continued to uphold the idea that philosophy could be the arbiter of all disciplines. The article notes that Speculum Mentis and Experience and its Modes put forward similar arguments to some extent – highlighting the importance of ‘provinces’ or ‘modes’ of understanding more than previous British Idealists, the abstract nature of scientific understanding, and the limits (as well as the possibilities) of philosophizing. But it also highlights Collingwood and Oakeshott’s different approaches – not least to the relationship between philosophy and practice, of the modes to one another, and the degree to which modernity should be regarded as a crisis. By relating these differences to the context of late nineteenth and early twentieth century philosophy, the article aims to provide a better understanding of why they occurred in Speculum Mentis and Experience and its Modes
Fasting and Honesty: Experimental Evidence from Egypt
Get PDFThis paper examines the effect of religious fasting on truth-telling using a laboratory experiment in Egypt. While fasting-induced religiosity may promote truth-telling, the physiological and psychological changes during fasting, due to alimentary abstention and self-control exertion, may reduce honesty, especially when fasting is augmented with effort. We examine this question by tracing individual truth-telling decisions, in the absence and presence of additional effort, both before and during Ramadan. We find that neither effort nor fasting alone affects honesty, but exerting effort while fasting reduces honesty. We provide suggestive evidence on the mechanisms potentially driving this negative effect on honesty
Norm diffusion in cyber governance: China as an emerging norm entrepreneur?
Get PDFIn light of China’s growing weight as a technological power in the international arena, an increasing body of literature is dedicated to conceptualising China as a nascent norm-shaper in global cyber governance. However, a nuanced investigation into the process of China’s norm diffusion in cyber governance has been lacking. Drawing on the latest advancements from norm diffusion theory, this study provides a nuanced understanding of the complex and multidimensional nature of China’s cyber governance norm cluster and the diffusion mechanisms. By contesting the linear and static conceptualization of norms, this study conceptualizes China’s cyber governance norms through the lens of norm cluster. It demonstrates that China has actively promoted a constellation of values and appropriate behaviours in order to address the myriad of problems and challenges it identifies in global cyber governance, revolving around three core values, namely cyber sovereignty, multilateralism, and balance between security and development. This research also demonstrates that instead of using a single diffusion mechanism, China has relied on a dynamic combination of socialization and positive incentives which are driven by both state-led actors and private sectors to diffuse its cyber norms and approaches at regional and international levels
Episode 2 - Smashing the Image: Susan Howe’s Ikon Basilika or a Bibliography of the King’s Book with Rebecca Newby
No full textEpisode 2: Smashing the Image: Susan Howe’s Ikon Basilika or a Bibliography of the King’s Book with Dr Rebecca Newby
Trigger Warning: Death and Execution
The page as art, or how to behead text and scatter history. Medieval literature scholar Dr Rebecca Newby joins me to discuss absent centers and visual poetry. A Bibliography of the King's Book, or Eikon Basilike, is a 1989 poetry collection by Susan Howe. It’s about, and to a certain degree, is itself, a book of treatises, meditations, prayers and tracts attributed to King Charles 1st, named Eikon Basilike. The original was published and distributed on the day of his execution in 1649, but is now considered to be a forgery, the real authors being anonymous sympathizers to the royalist cause. Howe’s response centers on an 1896 bibliography of Eikon Basilike by Edward Almanack, and her poetry is part homage and part appropriation. It’s a collection which fits within the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Poetry genre, with a particular emphasis on fragmented and visual forms, a shifting voice and a striking sense of typology and materialism. It poses questions of authorship, form, and language, and is a pivotal text for experimental artists in both visual and written mediums
Exploring Social Dynamics in a Reinforcement Learning-based Metaheuristic: A study using Improvement Frequency and Population Turnover
No full textSwarm Intelligence (SI) metaheuristics have been extensively employed in optimisation, yet their social dynamics analysis has not been explored sufficiently. This paper addresses this gap by investigating inner dynamics in an RL-based metaheuristic using two recently proposed metrics, Improvement Frequency and Population Turnover. The goal is to reveal the underlying dynamics that rule the agents of the metaheuristic compared with other well-known metaheuristics. Our findings indicate that RL can effectively combine or replicate the social dynamics available across metaheuristics for multiple scenarios, making possible the creation of adaptive metaheuristics shaped for specific problems. We observed that the search behaviours exhibited by the RL-metaheuristics were closely related to the specific benchmark problems used in the experiments. Thus, our findings support the idea of using RL to create effective metaheuristics for problems that are still unknown -- no clear evidence of which algorithm would be adequate