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Plague, Popular Memory, and Witness Testimonies in Late Medieval England
No full textThe role of plague in the popular memory of late medieval England has been contested by historians. Some have pointed to the seeming abundance of personal recollections of plague outbreaks, whilst others have noted a reluctance amongst witnesses to recall such memories. This article explores the ways in which contemporaries referred to plague outbreaks as both temporal markers and memory anchors. It then analyses a detailed case study of one court case to show how and why plague could come to dominate some witness testimonies. Popular memory in a community in the East Riding of Yorkshire in England coalesced around a series of disputed plague deaths, not necessarily because they left an indelible mark upon communal memory but because the mortuary dues of the deceased became contentious. This legal context explains how and why witnesses deployed their memories of plague and is thus instrumental in how we interpret such depositions
An analytical model of multi-ring segmental lining with nonlinear joint interactions
No full textSegmental lining with stagger-jointed arrangement exhibits evident nonlinear deformations and stagger effect due to high stresses typical for underground structures. To describe this behavior, a new analytical model of multi-ring segmental linings was proposed with combination of nonlinear joint model and fictitious spring-curved beam model. The effectiveness of proposed model was verified by experimental data of full-scale test and a case study was conducted. The features of joints and ring-to-ring interactions for the model are reflected in the discontinuous displacements and bending moment adjustments, respectively. The radial displacement of segmental ring presents nonlinear growth as the load increases and there is approximately 40% larger radial displacement compared with the linear full recovery case after unloading. The failure process of multi-ring segmental lining was illustrated by plastic hinge theory and the structure fails when the fourth plastic hinge was formed. The failure displacement increases 16.8% after experiencing a loading–unloading process because of the residual displacement. The ring-to-ring interaction can be observed on the combination area of longitudinal joint and segment, and the interaction will be enhanced as the load increases. This approach is a closed-form solution for a highly complex problem incorporating material and geometrical nonlinearities for the joints, with robust performance. Hence, it has strong potential to be deployed in the design of resilient tunnel linings
Supporting Families in Precarious Times: A Qualitative Longitudinal Approach to Understanding ‘what Works’
Get PDFHow can we understand ‘what works’ for families in increasingly precarious times? Who should be involved in determining what matters – and what helps? These questions are addressed in the context of the National Evaluation of A Better Start (ABS), a ten-year programme in England funded by The National Lottery Community Fund. Aiming to improve the life chances of children aged 0–4 years, partnerships in five geographical areas share common priorities, but each area develops a locally embedded place-based approach with a strong emphasis on partnership with local parents, caregivers and communities. Focusing on one component of the National Evaluation, we consider how a family-centred qualitative longitudinal approach democratises understanding of ‘what works’: scaffolding engagement and foregrounding perspectives that might otherwise be missed, marginalised or problematised. Through interviews with 25 families spanning two years, the analysis illuminates the interdependent causal pathways through which non-standardised support can contribute to family lives
Malaise of Artificial Intelligence in Education: A Reflective Stance
No full textThis chapter presents current philosophical discourse and ethical dilemmas surrounding artificial intelligence in education by taking ChatGPT as a case from generative AI tools. Based on the current literature, this chapter identifies three core philosophical assumptions and their corresponding ethical considerations: a) the market-driven nature of generative AI tools designed for profit generation raises ethical concerns regarding global access to AI-powered educational opportunities; b) the thinking manipulation mechanism of generative AI tools to guide thought processes linearly raises cognitive apprehensions such as its influence on the minds of users, specifically on children and youth with higher learning adaptability; and c) the potential of generative AI tools to replace human labour poses economic concerns, specifically related to diminishing employment opportunities. The chapter concludes with plausible solutions to ensure the democratised and ethical use of AI tools in education to create a more just and equitable society
Symbolic Investiture and Identity-Making in Monastic Accounts of the First Crusade
No full textThis article examines the investiture of the crusader cross at the Council of Clermont in 1095. It argues that the presentation of this moment in monastic chronicles of the First Crusade represents a literary policy of social identity-making based upon the monastic experience. Monks were invested at their profession with their habit, which represented both a literal and a metaphorical cross which tied them to their monastic identity. The article goes on to explore the references to military arms in these monastic accounts of the crusader cross, and draws comparisons to contemporary depictions of depositions of arms as a cornerstone of knightly identity. It concludes that the investiture of the cross in 1095 should be considered within broader conversations about early ‘knighting’ practices, and that, despite the monastic influences on their presentation of crusaders, they were depicted deliberately as a distinct social group
Dissenting Voices. Rewriting Past and Present in Socrates' and Sozomen's Ecclesiastical Histories
No full textWhen sociality fails to produce solidarity: environmental NGOs and the politics of public engagement in contemporary China
Get PDFThis article examines the potentials and limitations of the concept of “chemosociality” (Shapiro and Kirksey, Cultural Anthropology 32:481–493, 2017) through a case study of Emerald, an environmental NGO addressing pollution in China’s chemical industry. Based on fieldwork and online research conducted since 2016, the article explores how chemosociality provides a lens to move beyond binary views of a homogeneous frontline community battling against toxic industries. However, it argues that chemosociality alone is insufficient to account for the unevenness of community engagement in environmental advocacy. Drawing on Bradley’s concept of biosolidarity (Bradley, Anthropology & Medicine 28:543–557, 2021), the article introduces chemosolidarity and ecosolidarity to highlight Emerald’s efforts to foster public participation. While Emerald’s attempts to cultivate chemosolidarity were unsuccessful, they nurtured ecosolidarity, grounded in a shared appreciation of nature. This example underscores the need to differentiate between sociality and solidarity and to pay attention to affective rather than effective participation to gain a more nuanced understanding of environmental justice and the complexities of toxicity and environmental advocacy
Infrastructures and Capitalist World Ordering
Get PDFIn this forum, we employ infrastructures as an analytical lens to explore contemporary world ordering, which we root in the dynamics of capitalism. Beyond enabling mobility and facilitating capital’s expansionist transgression of social and geographical barriers, we show how the current densification and expansion of infrastructures are actively undermining the imaginary of a world ordered through spatially bounded, internally unified entities. Infrastructures, as we demonstrate through four case studies, become complicit in the production and reification of social abstractions, key among them abstract time, space, nature and subjectivity. Infrastructures, therefore, contribute to the flattening of lived experiences, inserting capital’s calculative logic onto social lives while providing it with a material form. Building on the examination of port, agro-industrial, financial and urban infrastructures, we explore how capital’s general drive towards accelerating mobilities leads to the pluralization and modularization of spaces, transforms practices of statehood, destroys ecosystems, builds on speculative exclusionary practices, and obfuscates violence intrinsic to abstractions by rendering them technical. Infrastructures, we conclude, lend themselves to a non-schematic and non-sedentary understanding of the social, transcending scalar fixes and highlighting the (violent) relational materialities that are structuring social relations at different scales
Identifying pastoral and plant products in local and imported pottery in Early Bronze Age southeastern Arabia
Get PDFThe origins of ceramic technology in the Oman Peninsula have a unique history in the context of ancient West Asia. Local pottery production in northern Oman and the United Arab Emirates is not documented until the early to mid-third millennium BC during the Early Bronze Age. This period was characterised by increasing sedentism and the expansion of long-distance exchange networks that operated across the Persian Gulf between Arabia, Mesopotamia, Iran and South Asia, including the exchange of ceramic vessels. In order to explore the links between ceramic technology and type, subsistence practices and sedentism as ceramic production was adopted in the region, we analysed the lipid content of Early Bronze Age pottery (n = 179) in southeastern Arabia from inland and coastal sites. The ceramic assemblage examined includes pottery produced locally at the site level as well as vessels that are distributed regionally. The contents of imported pottery from Mesopotamia and the Indus Civilisation from inland and coastal sites were also studied to determine the organic products that may have been transported as part of long-distance exchange. The results reveal the presence of pastoral products, such as meat and dairy products, in some of the earliest vessels produced in southeastern Arabia, as well as imported Mesopotamian vessels. Plant products are detected in a small minority of vessels in locally-produced and imported vessels, such as Fine Red Omani vessels and Black-Slipped Jars from the Indus Civilisation. Such an investigation demonstrates the importance of using biomolecular methods to study dietary practices and vessel use in southeastern Arabia on a larger scale
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