1,720,996 research outputs found

    Promising pipelines and hydrocarbon nationalism: the sociality of unbuilt infrastructure in indigenous Siberia

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    By analysing how shamanist nomads who previously opposed large infrastructure works have suddenly become enchanted by the prospect of the construction of a large gas pipeline, this paper ethnographically investigates how technology and infrastructure become perceived as promising by ordinary people on the ground in post-Soviet Siberia. Drawing attention to the discursive impact of large gas corporations and the role of deeply embedded Soviet conceptions of modernity in lling pipelines with cultural meaning, this paper provides unique insights into the highly localised engagements with infrastructure. As such, this paper contributes to the anthropology of Russia, where infrastructure has only recently received academic attention. It also corresponds to the ‘infrastructural turn’ in anthropology by studying the social, cultural and material conditions ensuring that infrastructure becomes perceived as promising. Furthermore, this paper explores the signicant impact of ancillary infrastructures connected to a construction project in entangling people with technology and infrastructure

    Heritage Statecraft and Corporate Power: Altai Activism in Post-Soviet Siberia

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    Heritage Statecraft and Corporate Power examines the politicization of heritage and heritage conflicts in Siberia. In so doing, it challenges the idea that heritage is created by the state and instead argues that heritage creates the state. Building upon extensive ethnographic fieldwork undertaken in south-central Eurasia, this book provides an analysis of the sociopolitical enmeshment of archaeology and heritage in Russia’s resource colony: Siberia. Although many examples from across Siberia are discussed, the core study region for the book is the Altai Republic, which is located where Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and China intersect. Taking a “heritage statecraft” approach, Plets argues that heritage is a particularly important political instrument in this region. The book considers how different social “groups”—including indigenous communities, Russian settlers, displaced groups, national and international archaeologists, political parties, and energy companies—translate archaeological data into culturally distinct heritages. Plets encourages scrutiny of the different players that mobilize heritage to instill norms and ideas and the ways in which new regulations or institutions are ultimately implemented. Heritage Statecraft and Corporate Power contributes to key debates around the politics of archaeology, resource development, and cultural heritage. It will be essential reading for academics and students engaged in the study of heritage, archaeology, and memory

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed

    Variations on the Author

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    “Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship

    Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis

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    We provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis

    The Patarei Sea Fort: Perspectives on Heritage, Memory and Identity Politics in Post-Soviet Estonia

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    This paper studies the struggle over the rehabilitation of the Patarei Sea Fort in Tallinn (Estonia), a former prison where during the Soviet period political prisoners were held and corralled before deportation to Siberia. We explore how three groups of stakeholders assemble and define the future of the site: The Estonian State; ngo Eesti Muinsuskaiste Selts (the Estonian Heritage Society); and Europa Nostra. Each of these groups have a competing future for the site in mind. The struggle over the Patarei Sea fort is connected to discussions over heritage politics in those countries that entered the European Union around the early 2000s. In comparison to other memory practices in the region, the Patarei Sea Fort is not instrumentalized by the state to support a national historical narrative othering the Russian Federation. Rather the state’s engagement with the site is restricted and textured by ambitions to gentrify the district it is situated in. Not the state, but an ngo, assisted by a European heritage association, promotes a heritage discourse geared at strengthening the Estonian national narrative

    Russia in Palmyra: Contextualizing the Kremlin’s Postconflict Heritage Rehabilitation Efforts

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    This article analyses the reconstruction efforts of Russian heritage scholars and institutions in Palmyra, Syria. There is little doubt that the financial opportunities provided by the Kremlin for the reconstruction of the war-damaged World Heritage site can be analyzed as propaganda directed at foreign audiences. Drawing on ethnographic and historical research on world heritage politics, this article contextualizes reconstruction efforts as part of a Russian cultural diplomacy goal that promotes the need for a multipolar world. The article also draws attention to the limits of describing Russian heritage reconstruction efforts as foremost international propaganda. The argument is that reconstruction efforts by Russia are deeply connected to domestic and international politics, propagating the Kremlin’s grand narrative that portrays Putin as a leader of a global power that reclaims its status in the international arena. This signifies the increasing endeavors of states to utilize cultural assets for political and legitimation ends
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