3,737 research outputs found
Writing from the shadowlands: how cross-cultural literature negotiates the legacy of Edward Said
No full textThis thesis examines the impact of Edward Said's influential work Orientalism and its legacy in respect of contemporary reading and writing across cultures. It also questions the legitimacy of Said's retrospective stereotyping of early examples of cross-cultural representation in literature as uncompromisingly 'orientalist'.
It is well known that the release of Edward Said's Orientalism in 1978 was responsible for the rise of a range of cultural and critical theories from multiculturalism to postcolonialism. It was a study that not only polarized critics and forced scholars to re-examine orientalist archives, but persuaded creative writers to re-think their ethnographic positions when it came to the literary representations of cultures other than their own. Without detracting from the enormous impact of Said, this thesis isolates gaps and silences in Said that need correcting. Furthermore, there is an element of intransigence, an uncompromising refusal to fine-tune what is essentially a binary discourse of the West and its other in Said's work, that encourages the continued interrogation of power relations but which, because of its very boldness, paradoxically disallows the extent to which the conflict of cultures indeed produced new, hybrid social and cultural formations.
In an attempt to challenge the severity of Said's claim that 'every European, in what he could say about the Orient, was consequently a racist, an imperialist, and almost totally ethnocentric', the thesis examines a number of different discursive contexts in which such a presumption is challenged. Thus while the second chapter discusses the 'traditional' profession-based orientalism of nineteenth-century E. G. Browne, the third considers the anti-imperialism of colonial administrator Leonard Woolf. The fourth chapter provides a reflection on the difficulties of diasporic 'orientalism' through the works of Michael Ondaatje while chapter five demonstrates the effects of the dialogism used by Amitav Ghosh as a defence against 'orientalism'. The thesis concludes with an examination of contemporary writing by Andrea Levy that appositely illustrates the legacy of Said's influence.
While the restrictive parameters of Said's work make it difficult to mount a thorough-going critique of Said, this thesis shows that, indeed, it is within the restraints of these parameters and in the very discourse that Said employs that he traps himself. This study claims that even Said is susceptible to 'orientalist' criticism in that he is as much an 'orientalist' as those at whom he directs his polemic
What said the economic theory about Portugal. Another approach
No full textWith this work we try to analyse the agglomeration process in the Portuguese regions, using the New Economic Geography models. This work aims to test, also, the Verdoorn Law, with the alternative specifications of (1)Kaldor (1966), for the 28 NUTS III Portuguese in the period 1995 to 1999. It is intended to test the alternative interpretation of (2)Rowthorn (1975). With this study we want, also, to test the Verdoorn´s Law at a regional and a sectoral levels (NUTs II) for the period 1995-1999. The importance of some additional variables in the original specification of Verdoorn´s Law is yet tested, such as, trade flows, capital accumulation and labour concentration. This study analyses, also, through cross-section estimation methods, the influence of spatial effects in productivity in the NUTs III economic sectors of mainland Portugal from 1995 to 1999, considering the Verdoorn relationship. The aim of this paper is, yet, to present a contribution, with panel data, to the analysis of absolute convergence and conditional of the sectoral productivity at regional level (from 1995 to 1999). The structural variables used in the analysis of conditional convergence is the ratio of capital/output, the flow of goods/output and location ratio.new economic geography; Verdoorn law; convergence; cross-section and panel data; Portuguese regions
Nudging Payment Behaviour: Evidence from a Field Experiment on Pay-as-You-Go Off-Grid Electricity
No full textThis is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Oxford University Press via the DOI in this recordData availability:
Anonymised, unit-level data along with the do files that are required for replication of the findings presented in this paper can be provided on request.This paper reports results from a randomized control trial with a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) solar system provider in Pakistan. In the default treatment, customers are told the amount to pay every month to keep the system active. In a first treatment, customers are assisted in planning this monthly payment. A second treatment discloses that payments can be made flexibly within the month. This disclosure may reduce contract cancellation by helping minimize transaction costs but may increase contract complexity and reduce discipline. A third treatment combines flexibility with assistance in planning payments. Disclosing flexibility increases contract cancellation relative to the default, but combining flexibility with planning offsets this effect. Treatment effects appear stronger among users facing high mental constraints and transaction costs. These findings support the idea that behavioral factors, such as inattention and commitment problems, lay behind the negative impact of flexibility on cancellation. The results suggest that providers of PAYG systems may face a trade-off between disclosing complex contractual features and customer retention. Planning helps customers handle the added complexity.International Growth CentreEuropean Union FP
The Iranian vole Microtus irani occurs in Lebanon (Mammalia: Rodentia)
No full textWe studied 1140 bp cytochrome b sequences of social voles from three localities in Lebanon. The results were compared with published sequences representing seven species of social voles. New sequences from Lebanon clustered with reference samples of two species: M. guentheri and M. irani. While M. guentheri was already reported for Lebanon, M. irani is a new addition to the fauna of Lebanon, and the third known record for the species. Animals were collected in two localities above Tripolis at 855 m and 1430 m a.s.l., respectively. © Zoology in the Middle East, 2013.Anisimova M, 2006, SYST BIOL, V55, P539, DOI 10.1080-10635150600755453; Corbet G. B., 1978, MAMMALS PALAEARCTIC; ELLERMAN JR, 1948, P ZOOL SOC LOND, V118, P765; Golenishchev Fedor N., 2002, Russian Journal of Theriology, V1, P117; Guindon S, 2003, SYST BIOL, V52, P696, DOI 10.1080-10635150390235520; Harrison Richard G., 2003, Journal of Mammalian Evolution, V10, P249, DOI 10.1023-B:JOMM.0000015105.96065.f0; Haynes S, 2003, MOL ECOL, V12, P951, DOI 10.1046-j.1365-294X.2003.01795.x; Huelsenbeck JP, 2001, BIOINFORMATICS, V17, P754, DOI 10.1093-bioinformatics-17.8.754; Jaarola M, 2002, MOL ECOL, V11, P2613, DOI 10.1046-j.1365-294X.2002.01639.x; Jaarola M, 2004, MOL PHYLOGENET EVOL, V33, P647, DOI 10.1016-j.ympev.2004.07.015; Krystufek B, 2001, MAMMAL REV, V31, P229, DOI 10.1046-j.1365-2907.2001.00088.x; Krystufek B., 2001, BONNER ZOOLOGISCHE B, V50, P1; Krystufek B, 2010, ZOOL MIDDLE EAST, V50, P11; Krystufek B, 2012, MAMM BIOL, V77, P178, DOI 10.1016-j.mambio.2011.11.007; Krystufek B, 2009, BIOL J LINN SOC, V98, P121; Krystufek B, 2005, MAMMALS TURKEY CYPRU; LEWIS RE, 1967, J ZOOL, V153, P45; Martinkova N, 2012, FOLIA ZOOL, V61, P254; Musser G. G., 2005, MAMMAL SPECIES WORLD, V2, P894; Nylander JAA, 2004, MRMODELTEST VERSION; Rambaut A, 2007, TRACER V1 4; Ronquist F, 2003, BIOINFORMATICS, V19, P1572, DOI 10.1093-bioinformatics-btg180; Shenbrot G. I., 2005, ATLAS GEOGRAPHIC DIS; Shimodaira H, 1999, MOL BIOL EVOL, V16, P1114; Steppan SJ, 1999, SYST BIOL, V48, P715; Swofford DL, 2002, PAUP PHYLOGENETIC AN; Tamura K, 2011, MOL BIOL EVOL, V28, P2731, DOI 10.1093-molbev-msr121; Tohme G., 1985, MAMMIFERES SAUVAGES; Zima J., 2013, ACTA THERIO IN PRESS11
What said the new economic geography about Portugal? An alternative approach
No full textWith this work we try to analyse the agglomeration process in Portugal, using the New Economic Geography models, in a linear and in a non linear way. In a non linear way, of referring, as summary conclusion, that with this work the existence of increasing returns to scale and low transport cost, in the Portuguese regions, was proven and, because this, the existence of agglomeration in Portugal. We pretend, also, in a linear way to explain the complementarily of clustering models, associated with the New Economic Geography, and polarization associated with the Keynesian tradition. As a summary conclusion, we can say which the agglomeration process shows some signs of concentration in Lisboa e Vale do Tejo and the productivity factor significantly improves the results that explain the regional clustering in Portugal. The aim of this paper is to analyze, yet, the relationship between the regional industry clustering and the demand for labor by companies in Portugal. Again, the results are consistent with the theoretical developments of the New Economic Geography, namely the demand for labor is greater where transport costs are lower and where there is a strong links "backward and forward" and strong economies of agglomeration.new economic geography; linear and non linear models; Portuguese regions
Author Ben Ames Williams first met Searsmont farmer Bert McCorrison in 1918, a m
No full textAuthor Ben Ames Williams first met Searsmont farmer Bert McCorrison in 1918, a meeting which the author said had a profound impact on his professional career. McCorrison died in 1931, leaving Williams his Hardscrabble Farm in Searsmount, which became the author\u27s home until his death in 1953
Writing and the rights of reality: usurpation and potentiality in Derrida, Plato, Nietzsche, and Beckett
No full textThe thesis critically evaluates Jacques Derrida's conferral of the rights of reality on writing, focussing on his theory of an arche-text in light of the speculative nature of this theory. The theory is initially considered in the context of Derrida's elucidation of the usurpatory status of writing within the Platonic and Nietzschean texts. This consideration reveals an admission of writing's usurpatory status by both writers while at the same time demonstrating their awareness of the intrinsically speculative nature of this view, the significance of writing lying in its ability to exteriorise the radically indeterminate status of consciousness m relation to reality rather than its ability to displace consciousness or reality The analyses, therefore, not only bring the Derridean hypothesis of a repressive or phonocentric metaphysical episteme into question but also exhibit the historical and philosophical role of potentiality in relation to writing, writing's ultimate significance lying in its capacity to exteriorise our existence as a mode of potentiality. Accordingly, in the second half of the thesis the Derridean theory of writing is countered with a specifically Aristotelian theory of the text as it is exhibited in the prose of Samuel Beckett, an author whose significance lies in his close alignment with Derridean theory within contemporary criticism. It is demonstrated that this identification has obviated an awareness of the significance of potentiality within the Beckettian text, his work consequently being appraised in the previously neglected context of Aristotelian metaphysics
Big Data, Big Libraries, Big Problems?: the 2014 LibTech Anti-talk?
No full textThe desire to create automatons is a familiar theme in human history, and during the age of the Enlightenment mechanical automatons became not only an “emblem of the cosmos”, but a symbol of man’s confidence that he would unlock nature’s greatest mysteries and fully harness her power. And yet only a century later, automatons had begun to represent human repression and servitude, a theme later picked up by writers of science fiction. Man’s confidence undeterred, the endgame of the modern scientific and technological mindset, or MSTM, seems to be increasingly coming into view with the rise of “information technology” in general and “Big data” in particular. Along with those who wield them, these can be seen as functioning together as a “mechanical muse” of sorts – surprisingly alluring – and, like a physical automaton can serve as a symbol – a microcosm – of what the MSTM sees (at the very least in practice) as the cosmic machine, our “final frontier”. And yet, individuals who unreflectively participate in these things – giving themselves over to them and seeking the powers afforded by the technology apart from technology’s rightful purposes – in fact yield to the same pragmatism and reductionism those wielding them are captive to. Thus, they ultimately nullify themselves philosophically, politically, and economically – their value increasingly being only the data concerning their persons, and its perceived usefulness. Likewise libraries, the time-honored place of, and symbol for, the intellectual flowering of the individual, will, insofar as they spurn the classical liberal arts (with the idea that things are intrinsically good, and in the case of humans, special as well) in favor of the alluring embrace of MSTM-driven “information technology” and Big data - unwittingly contribute to their irrelevance and demise as they find themselves increasingly less needed, valued, wanted. Likewise for the liberal arts as a whole, and in fact history itself, if the acid of a “science” untethered from what is, in fact, good (intrinsically), continues to gain strengt
Gertrude M. Davidson telegram to Franklin County Woman Suffrage Association, October 22, 1914
No full textThis telegram was sent on October 22, 1914, to the Woman Suffrage Headquarters in Franklin County, Ohio. Gertrude M. Davidson, a member of the Scioto County Association for women's suffrage, sent the telegram to request fliers in support of women's suffrage. Davidson said she needed the fliers by her organization's Saturday afternoon meeting. She requested the flier titled "Women in the Home," but stated that if there weren't enough of those to send the best fliers they had on hand.
The Franklin County Woman Suffrage Association was formed in 1912, after the Ohio Constitutional Convention elected to bring to a vote the question of removing the words "white male" from the state constitution with regard to voting rights. Headquartered in the Chamber of Commerce building in Columbus, Ohio, the organization put out regular publications, organized public speeches and meetings, distributed literature and held parades in support of the suffrage movement. Women's suffrage in Ohio was defeated in a special election in 1912 and again in 1914 and 1916 before a resolution narrowly passed in 1917 allowing municipal voting by women in Columbus. In 1920, the 19th Amendment passed, extending the vote to women and prohibiting state and federal government from denying suffrage on the basis of sex
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