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The politicization of ill bodies in Campania, Italy
No full textAbstract The communities affected by toxic contamination in Campania, Italy, have had to confront the challenge of proving a direct causal connection between exposure to pollutants and health issues, given a long history of mismanagement of waste. Medical studies have been conducted, but the social and political debate is static. In September 2014, the Italian Ministry of Health simply repeated earlier statements that Campania's increasing cancer rates are due to poor lifestyle habits. The article casts light on the politicization of ill bodies of Campania. We analyze three practices of political action and resistance which employed the subjectivization of physical bodies and illnesses to expose environmental injustice affecting communities. In the neighborhood of Pianura, Naples, people gathered medical records as evidence for a trial into 'culpable epidemics.' In the so-called Land of Fires, in the northern periphery of Naples, hundreds of postcards featuring pictures of children killed by rare pathologies were sent to the Italian Head of State and the Pope. Finally, in the town of Acerra, the blood of a dying shepherd became a political object to prove exposure to dioxin contamination in that area. The politicization of illness and bodies conflates the public and private, challenges the mainstream production of knowledge, and proposes an alternative narrative for affected communities and individuals. Nevertheless, the practices of this politicization have differed and are not always 'political', as we will show through the three cases. Key words: popular epidemiology, biopower, waste, Campania, political ecology of disease, private is politica
Work ethic and degrowth in a changing Atlantic Canada
No full textAbstract This article draws on interviews, observations, and surveys from two mixed-methods sociological studies of people's relationships to paid and unpaid work to argue that the concept of the work ethic is a fruitful entrypoint for exploring critical issues of work, leisure and consumption in rural places, and indeed anywhere there are efforts to realize degrowth strategies. Then, I survey some of the major themes about work in a selection of widely-cited degrowth writings and argue that the work ethic could use more attention—particularly the question of how the dominant work ethic at any place and time might constrain or enable degrowth as a political-ecological aspiration. This question is actually a hopeful one, because it suggests that in-depth studies of instances where something other than the Protestant, capitalist (i.e. expansion-oriented) work ethic dominates can (and already do!) show us the kinds of culturally-embedded relationships to work that are complimentary to a degrowth agenda. Moreover, such studies show that alternative modes of working are viable. In other words, sociological and anthropological studies can provide empirical evidence that vibrant, meaningful human life can continue in the absence of constant economic growth. Keywords: Degrowth, employment, work, work ethic, sociology, anthropology, rura
Gadrey, Jean et Aurore Lalucq. 2015. Faut-il donner un prix à la nature? Paris: Les petits matins et Institut Veblen. Revu par Antoine Verret-Hamelin
No full textJason W. Moore. 2015. Capitalism in the web of life: ecology and the accumulation of capital. London: Verso Press. Reviewed by Eric H. Thomas
No full textForthcoming: Response to Middle Bronze Age Chronology and Connnections
No full textA response by Manfred Bietak to the high (radiocarbon) chronology and its implications for the relations of egypt and the Levant is currently being prepared and will be published in a forthcoming volume of the Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections
The Course of 14C Dating Does Not Run Smooth: Tree-Rings, Radiocarbon, and Potential Impacts of a Calibration Curve Wiggle on Dating Mesopotamian Chronology
Get PDFWe review evidence for near-absolute calendar date estimates for the Waršama Palace at Kültepe and the Sarıkaya Palace at Acemhöyük (Turkey) in light of a forensic examination of the radiocarbon calibration curve. Both palaces can be linked indirectly (but closely) to the Assyrian Revised Eponym List (REL) and can thus be connected with the Mesopotamian historical chronology. The possible relevance of some apparent features of detail in the radiocarbon calibration dataset is noted. In particular, we explore a wiggle-match of the dendro-14C sequences from the palaces employing the IntCal98 calibration curve, which better represents what we argue seems to be a pronounced “wiggle” in contemporary atmospheric 14C ages around 1835 BCE. This “wiggle” is missing in the more smoothed IntCal13 curve (the current standard northern hemisphere radiocarbon calibration curve). Using IntCal98, we find a best fit 8 years later than previously suggested. We suggest that this issue of “detail” requires further investigation in order to achieve a precise solution for Mesopotamian chronology. If this wiggle is relevant, we find that the dendro-14C-derived dates are more in agreement with the Low Middle Chronology, thus refining previous conclusions. This result is also discussed in the framework of the radiocarbon-backed high Middle Bronze Age chronology for the southern Levant and a recently published radiocarbon date for Illahun Papyrus 10012B, reporting the anticipated rise of Sothis, one of the key-anchors of Egyptian historical chronology
Transforming the canons of John Stuart Mill from philosophy to replicative, empirical research: The Common Cause research design
No full textWhen an element or factor is common to a set of circumstances that element may be causal in its relationship to particular dependent variables. This premise was stated by John Stuart Mill more than 170 years ago, and Mill's canon, the Method of Agreement, is used here as a basis to create the "Common Cause" (CC) research design. The CC design is particularly relevant when a set of multiple circumstances can be represented by alternative theories of change or competing explanations. We consider several potential applications of the design and elaborate its structure within the validity framework of Shadish, Cook, and Campbell. We discuss threats to validity controlled by the CC design (e.g., selection bias, the bane of applied researchers, is not relevant) and illustrate possible analytic strategies using simulated data. We explicitly compare the CC design to four quasi-experimental designs in terms of the validity threats that they eliminate. Design weaknesses are addressed and ways to enhance the design's inferential power discussed. The CC design itself represents a proof of concept suggesting that other research designs can be created from philosophical principles
“Orange is the new white: Trump's 'Brand' of whiteness, its transformation of the brown body, and its effect on immigration policy and socioracial ideology in the United States”
No full text“Orange is the new white: Trump's 'Brand' of whiteness, its transformation of the brown body, and its effect on immigration policy and socioracial ideology in the United States”by James Myers II
Gaming the Classroom: The Transformative Experience of Redesigning the Delivery of a Political Science Class
No full textGame mechanics can motivate users beyond what is normally expected. Research has shown that this technique can be used to enhance the learning experience for students on all educational levels. The paper details the experiences of transforming traditional lecture-based courses in undergraduate political science to gamification and game-based learning, and it presents the reader with a toolkit for how to make such a conversion based on the author’s experiences. An overview of selected scholarly literature on teaching informs the reflection on this transformation. The paper concludes that gamification and game-based learning can provide benefits in political science education when leveraging formative assessment, flipped classrooms, and game-based learning. It also finds that there might be some institutional barriers to the adoption of these tools, primarily associated with the institutionalization of the bell curve as a guideline for the distribution of student grades. The paper ends with some reflections on possible future research areasDOI:10.2458/azu_itet_v5i2_hellstro