bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Benefits and Costs of Indices in Empirical Corporate Governance Research
Authors: Ferrell Allen
Published: January 2017

This chapter reviews the benefits and costs of using indices, in particular the G- and E-indices, in empirical corporate governance research. As with corporate governance itself, the widespread use of corporate governance indices have both costs and benefits. The literature has identified a number of concerns with the use of these indices including concerns over measurement error, endogeneity, reverse causation, omitted variables and proper identification of the actual mechanisms by which corporate governance might matter. On the other hand, these indices enjoy several important benefits that explain their continued and widespread use. It concludes that event study methodology and the utilization of legal shocks/regulatory discontinuities for identification will likely play an ever greater role in future research.
Life on the Pacific Rim
Authors: Williams Jay
Published: January 2017

Under Milicent Shinn’s editorship, The Overland Monthly helped create a Pacific consciousness, a knowledge on the part of western Americans that their world was at least equally a part of the Pacific as it was of the nation of the United States. Shinn was an anti-imperialist without being a white supremacist. She believed in a Pacific unity through cooperation, not militarism or trade. It is within this larger cultural historical context that the rise of Jack London must be placed. The stories that led to his acceptance in the Atlantic Monthly and then to his national prominence first appeared in an Overland Monthly heavily indebted to the editorial philosophy of Milicent Shinn.
“Come Down from the Mountain Top and Join the Fray”
Authors: Taylor Lawrence D.
Published: January 2017

The essay examines Jack London’s role in the Mexican Revolution. In explaining the supposed dichotomy in London’s attitude toward the revolution in the two instances, the author contends that, although by 1914 London had come to differ with the official stance of the Socialist Party of America in opposition to US intervention in the struggle, he maintained his faith in socialism and also remained “heart and soul” with the Mexican masses in their efforts to create a new political order based on social justice. This position was also in keeping, the author argues, with London’s own personal confidence in the ability of humanity to advance and improve the condition of the working class throughout the world.
Jack London as Poet
Authors: Adams George
Published: January 2017

Jack London’s failure as a poet, defined by esthetic or marketable criteria, is not an argument for ignoring his poetry. The mere fact of his including his poems in his essays and stories indicates that poetry was an integral aspect of his creativity and hence must be considered in an evaluation of his work as a whole. This essay provides an overview and classificatory system for better understanding his poetic output, especially in relation to the rest of his work. Given the difficulty of demonstrating that London was a poet who also reluctantly wrote prose, it is perhaps more accurate to call him a prose writer who for various reasons wrote poetry. A way to recuperate the view that he had a poetic instinct is to consider him the third kind of poet, in the larger etymological sense of the Greek poietes, “one who makes” or “creates.”
Darwin’s Anachronisms
Authors: Mexal Stephen J.
Published: January 2017

There is nothing wrong with having a conflicted or idiosyncratic political philosophy, of course. Jack London is large; he is allowed to contain multitudes. But by reading London’s letters in conjunction with the world he conjured in The Son of the Wolf, a more complete picture of his political imagination in the years leading up to 1900 can be grasped. The liberal individualism he denied can, in this light, be understood as emerging from the temporal dimension of his Darwinism (Reesman, Jack London’s, 11, 63). In other words, despite its setting’s apparent isolation from the modernity of late nineteenth-century America, The Son of the Wolf remains in thrall to the social landscape of the Southland.
The Valley of the Moon
Authors: Nuernberg Susan , Dunkle Iris Jamahl , Archer Alison
Published: January 2017

This essay explores Jack London’s novel The Valley of the Moon, which was originally published in 1912. The novel is structured as a heroic quest for love, land, and a home, and it was written during a period of time when London was consciously experiencing and exploring his own yearnings for love, land, and a home. This essay examines how London used research of small-scale farming and the small towns and cities he wrote about before writing the book. Equally, this essay examines how London reinvented the Heroic Quest by using a female heroine. Finally, the essay examines how London’s wife, Charmian collaborated on female characters and scenes throughout the novel. The Valley of the Moon is the literary rendering of London’s social and economic message to all future generations presented in the form of a quest narrative.
“A Curious Sort of Book”
Authors: Gatti Susan I.
Published: January 2017

A bold, imaginative work, The Star Rover demonstrates Jack London’s inventive approach to the social-protest genre. London mixes in the typical problem-novel ingredients: gritty, realistic details; sympathetic, downtrodden victims; greedy capitalist villains and their muscle-headed henchmen; brisk, often violent, action; outraged invective; individual and collective resistance; and radical action for precipitating change. But, in the process of exposing conditions within American prisons, London deviates sharply and creatively in The Star Rover—not only from the conventions of protest writing but also from the type of writing that normally assured him of good sales and positive reviews.
Family, Friends, Mentors
Authors: Stasz Clarice
Published: January 2017

To appreciate the reality of London’s rise, this discussion will focus upon the influence of many other individuals in shaping and reinforcing his beliefs and commitment to artistry. What one discovers is a man curious for knowledge, open to the ideas of people of varying life conditions. In addition, the “cradling,” the support and encouragement of women is evident from childhood onward. Though this theme can apply to his endeavors in ranching and in socialist activity, here the focus is specifically on his writing career, its emergence, and influential people. What emerges is a man who had many mentors, but who mentored in return and assisted the creativity of his friends.
Jack London, Suffering, and the Ideal of Masculine Toughness
Authors: Cassuto Leonard
Published: January 2017

Jack London suffered to succeed, and he succeeded by becoming a poet of suffering. His hardscrabble life of various labors has attracted many biographers, but London was his own first mythologist. The hells that London imagined he lived in gave him a career of material, starting with his childhood work at a “hell hole” of a cannery. This essay argues that Jack London’s work is informed by an aesthetics of suffering that is crucial to a fraught and frequently contradictory definition of manhood. From the Northland to the boxing ring, London spotlights the spectacle of male suffering and endurance, a focus that reflects the rising emphasis on masculinity during his lifetime, and his own deep personal and artistic investment in the meaning of white manhood.
Blurred Lines
Authors: Tucker Amy
Published: January 2017

Where writers like James, Howells, and Wharton disdained illustrations, regarding them as a distraction from the psychological realism of their fiction, Jack London welcomed the visual embellishment. He recognized how pictures helped sell books and magazines. Throughout his career he lobbied for favorite artists and criticized others, argued for the usefulness of pictures as reading guides and marketing tools, and requested pieces of original artwork for his private collection. His motivation, however, wasn’t strictly commercial. The discursive and visual elements surrounding any publication inevitably leave their impress on our experience of the work. In London’s case, they suggest a more collaborative relationship between texts and paratexts than has previously been recognized. Equally important, they point to a postmodern self-referentiality that becomes increasingly pronounced as London’s career progresses.
Introduction
Authors: Williams Jay
Published: January 2017

Robert Scholes and Clifford Wulfman define modernism and modernity this way: “Modernity is a social condition. Modernism was a response to that condition.” Modernity “is an urban condition” “reached in certain parts of the world in the late nineteenth century … a mass phenomenon” characterized by the rise of technology, print culture, and material consumption. Jack London, who is routinely categorized as a naturalist and realist, can also be called a modernist. The word modern appears often in the pages of this handbook, and though it is not new to call London a modernist, the breadth of scholarship in this present volume gives the categorization new meaning. Moving beyond categorization and periodization, the handbook emphasizes the intersection of London’s politics and his art. Ultimately, all the contributors are concerned with the artist Jack London living in the modern world.
Jack London, Marriage, and Divorce
Authors: Eby Clare Virginia
Published: January 2017

While Jack London is renowned for hypermasculine narratives, this essay traces his ongoing interest in marriage and domestic themes. That thread becomes especially visible as the essay establishes as an overlooked historical context for understanding London’s thinking about gender: the Progressive era debate over marriage and divorce. While in early work (and in his own first marriage) London maintained a troubling distinction between “Mother”-women versus “Mate”-women, later work (and to some extent, London’s second marriage) reflects a more egalitarian and companionate model, such as was recommended by contemporary marriage reformers. In particular, this essay traces the marriage reformers’ idea of a voluntary relationship between economically independent coworkers as refracted through London’s evolving portrayals of the division of labor in romantic partnerships. Drawing from London’s two marriages, one divorce, and troubled relationship with his daughters, this essay examines as well his evolving portrayals of sexuality, adultery, and reproduction.
Jack London’s International Reputation
Authors: McAleer Joseph
Published: January 2017

Jack London wasn’t just lucky at what he called the “writing game”—he is, by many accounts, the most popular American author in the world today. His 44 published books and hundreds of short stories and essays have been translated into more than 100 languages and hailed by critics from South America to Asia. His international reputation was forged in his namesake city across the Atlantic Ocean. London, England was the publishing gateway to Europe and the rest of the English-speaking world. By achieving success there, Jack London ensured that his books would be shipped by English publishers, in multiple editions and price points, around the globe. Foreign translations were also arranged, and piracy, though illegal, helped spread London’s works even wider. Given his prolific output, the author became a “brand” as readers looked forward to “the next Jack London book.”
Why Scale Matters
Authors: Cohen Alice
Published: January 2017

Water is a flow resource managed along political boundaries. As such, decisions about water governance are complicated by the plurality of actors and institutions that affect and govern water as it moves through the hydrologic cycle. Drawing on scale theory and on concrete examples from Canada, this chapter makes several interrelated arguments: first, that political boundaries render more complicated the effective governance of water, both by adding a layer of administrative and political complexity (i.e., transboundary water) as well as by creating a diversion from other pressing domestic water issues; and, second, that the water-related impacts of changing climate present a scalar challenge of drafting municipal policy in response to global climate change. Together, these arguments highlight the ways in which water cannot be considered apart from its scalar considerations.
Legislative Politics
Authors: Costa Olivier
Published: January 2017

This chapter proposes an assessment of the state of the study of legislative politics in France. It starts with a review of how the study of legislative politics has developed comparatively over time and identifies the major current debates in the comparative literature. Then it turns to the French case, explaining its weaknesses and peculiarities, and assessing the current state of legislative studies in France. We see that, for a long time, legislative studies were rare in the landscape of French political science. Things, though, have evolved since the end of the 1990s, when there was a renewed scholarly interest in central institutions and actors of the French political regime as well as the emergence of new work that was better connected with the methods, theories, and topics of mainstream legislative studies. Finally, we underline some dimensions of the agenda for the future study of legislative politics in France.
Challenges to French Public Administration
Authors: Bezes Philippe
Published: January 2017

This chapter aims to characterize the French administrative system and its contemporary transformations, by identifying the dynamics and diversity of the research conducted on this subject in the disciplines of sociology, political science, and in history. Adopting a comparative perspective, it emphasizes the richness of research programs on the French bureaucracy, its institutions, regulation, reforms, and agents. Four pillars of the French administrative system are identified (centralization, territoriality, administrative law, and administrative elites). The chapter emphasizes the renewal of academic studies of French public administration, exploring the various dimensions and effects of neo-managerial reforms (policy elites, street-level bureaucrats, professional groups). The chapter also characterizes the “French touch” in the study of French public administration and claims that French scholars of the bureaucracy, influenced by stimulating sociological perspectives, offer an interesting dialogue with the approaches that are currently dominant at the international level, and might sometimes even reinvigorate them.
Political Representation
Authors: Sauger Nicolas
Published: January 2017

Focusing explicitly on the dynamics of electoral representation, this chapter shows that scholarship about representation has been lively despite remaining at the fringe of mainstream international developments. Some precursors, such as Duverger, have failed to shape French debates about the issue even if their international standing has been immense. Instead, attention has been paid to the symbolic and historical dimensions of representation. The idea that representation has to be looked at outside the electoral arena has been particularly widespread. This chapter shows however that documentation about the various dimensions of representation in France is extensive. It also claims that some features of its institutions, starting with its various specific electoral systems, can provide unique opportunities to find quasi-experimental evidence about key issues affecting electoral representation.
How to Study Political Culture Without Naming It
Authors: Mayer Nonna , Tiberj Vincent
Published: January 2017

The boom in survey research, the increasing internationalization of political science, and the development of large-scale comparative projects have renewed the study of political culture and invalidated the notion of a French “exceptionalism.” But French scholars, influenced by Marxism, social history, and Bourdieu’s legacy of “critical sociology,” still have a different understanding of political culture, and prefer to use other concepts such as ideology. After a rapid overview of the founding studies and debates, this chapter shows how French research on political culture or cultures in the plural developed in its own way, and outlines the major challenges it is facing today on issues such as race and ethnicity, gender, globalization, and poverty.
Explaining French Elections
Authors: Lewis-Beck Michael S. , Nadeau Richard
Published: January 2017

This chapter reviews research done on French elections, focusing on presidential contests. Initially, the scientific literature on voting behavior, coming out of the Michigan Model, is looked at. Then, we bear down specifically on the French case, comparing the perspectives of French scholars, such as exploration of “heavy variables,” to the perspectives of non-French scholars, for example the search for general models. Attention is given also to the search for a Michigan Model à la française. The final part of the chapter considers the convergence between the two traditions of studying French elections, from different sides of the Atlantic. In conclusion, we see a “meeting in the middle,” with each tradition contributing to the understanding of electoral choice in France, via consideration of long-term forces such as patrimony, and short-term forces such as leader image. Lastly, we offer specific recommendations for further enhancement of French election surveys.
Parties and Party Systems
Authors: Haegel Florence
Published: January 2017

International work on political parties and party systems is presented first in this chapter, and then the French scholarship which is largely ignored by international party scholars. The analysis argues the gap between the English-language and French literature is actually widening because of the French penchant for the sociocultural approach. It identifies the need for both French and international communities to better connect in order to avoid isolation and fossilization on both sides. While the micro and qualitative French work challenges some of the tenets of international models, like the catch-all model, and presents important empirical knowledge about French political parties at the local level, French scholars should take a broader perspective on political parties by embracing alternative approaches and examining new objects of study outside the purview of the sociocultural paradigm to address the persistent and widening gap between French and international work on party systems and parties.
Women’s Movements and Feminism
Authors: Bereni Laure
Published: January 2017

This chapter starts by exploring the ways in which comparative research on women’s movements has challenged dominant conceptions in social movement theory, notably the antagonism between movements and institutions and the conflation of protest and disruption. The chapter then turns to the specific insights of French research on the women’s movement and feminism. First, a series of studies have explored the politicization of gender identity and the the historical interplay between mobilizing as women and doing so for women. Second, there has been considerable examination of the complex ways in which feminist protest has become ingrained in state institutions. Third, several works have focused on the process of diffusion and individual appropriation of feminist ideas outside the women’s movement. A recent line of research has placed the emphasis on the intersecting power relationships that shape the contemporary women’s movement.
Defense and Security Policy
Authors: Irondelle Bastien , Joana Jean , Mérand Frédéric
Published: January 2017

This chapter examines what the international literature tells us about French security and defense policy, but also what the French case teaches us about this literature. French scholarship on security and defense policy has demonstrated three main trends: the legacy of Charles de Gaulle’s vision and policies, a strongly policy-oriented production, and the influence of sociological approaches in French political science more generally. These trends have given the impression that the Fifth Republic’s security and defense was unique among Western democracies. The chapter tries to bring together the main elements of a research agenda that can connect the French case to the international literature, including: expanding the sociology of security and defense policy actors and institutions; analyzing the changing articulation between defense policy and war; and tracking the reaction of the French “strong state” to the the privatization of defense functions, the civilianization of the military, and growing international cooperation.
The French Welfare System
Authors: Hassenteufel Patrick , Palier Bruno
Published: January 2017

The French welfare system is usually classified as a case of a corporatist–conservative welfare regime because its main components clearly reflect the Bismarckian tradition of social insurance. The economic, social, and political functions of the French welfare system developed after 1945 explain the subsequent difficulties in transforming it following the economic crisis of the 1970s. We show that until the 1990s the main goal of welfare policies was the rescue of the French model based on financial measures. It is only since the end of the twentieth century that French social programs and institutions have been progressively (and partly) reformed to adapt to the new economic and social environment. This reform trajectory has been changed only slightly since the 2008 crisis, despite growing European intrusiveness.
The Europeanization of Public Policy in France
Authors: Saurugger Sabine
Published: January 2017

This chapter analyzes how French public policy approaches have studied the influence of European integration on France’s domestic public policies. Starting from a review of the general literature on Europeanization, the chapter presents three periods in the study of Europeanization that characterize French and francophone research from the 1990s to the beginning of the 2000s: the discovery of European integration as factor of domestic change; the period where research imported comparative Europeanization questions from abroad; and, finally, the emancipation of French Europeanization research. The chapter stresses that while Europeanization research emerged concurrently in the French and international realms, part of the French approach, embedded in a cognitive framework, best subsumed under the heading of “réferentiel,” has gradually started to influence debates at the international level.
Globalization
Authors: Goyer Michel , Glatzer Miguel
Published: January 2017

This chapter examines the impact, and political mediation, of globalization on the French political economy. There is little disagreement that globalizing forces are changing countries in a profound manner. Nowhere, however, has globalization generated such anxieties as in France, despite the economic benefits that it brings. This ambivalence highlights the importance of politics. First, rather than seeking to champion their actions, French policymakers, via their discursive framing, have presented economic liberalization as the unavoidable and distasteful consequence of globalization. Second, ambivalence toward globalization also illustrates the constraining legacy associated with the previous model of economic dirigisme. Coordination of economic activities around direct interactions between policymakers and executives of large companies served to overcome economic lags and social tensions, but stifled the development of the institutional foundations for either a coordinated or a liberal market economy—an important shortcoming for economic adjustment in the current economic environment.
Executive Politics in France
Authors: Elgie Robert , Grossman Emiliano
Published: January 2017

This chapter begins by reviewing the study of executive politics comparatively. It then reviews the study of executive politics in France, showing how scholars based in France were once at the cutting edge of international scholarship in this area. However, with the turn of French political science to political sociology, the study of the French executive tends to be carried out more by scholars outside France and by comparativists rather than by scholars within France itself. In this context, the chapter proposes a research agenda that urges a focus on the application of the new institutionalism to the French case, particularly the comparative work in this area, for an emphasis on the study of personalization and mediatization; for the literature on political psychology to be applied more systematically; for work on coalitions, and government formation and termination, to be extended; and for constructivist approaches to political leadership to be applied.
Technology and the American Constitution
Authors: Maloney Stephanie A. , Snead O. Carter
Published: January 2017

This chapter examines how the structural provisions of the American Constitution and the federalist system of government they create uniquely shape the landscape of regulation for technology in the United States. The chapter’s inquiry focuses on the biomedical technologies associated with assisted reproduction and embryo research. These areas present vexing normative questions about the introduction and deployment of these technologies, showing the mechanisms, dynamics, virtues, and limits of the federalist system of government for the regulation of technology. In particular, the differing jurisdictional scope of federal and state regulation results in overlap and interplay between the two regulatory systems. The consequence of this dynamic is often a wide divergence in judgments about law and public policy. The chapter’s review of the constitutionally fragmented regime currently regulating different biotechnologies questions whether such a decentralized approach is well suited to technologies that involve essential moral and ethical judgments about the human person.
Identity
Authors: Baldwin Thomas
Published: January 2017

Identity is a basic concept which concerns the way in which the world divides up at one time into different things which are then reidentified despite change over the course of time until they cease to exist. Important debates concern the relation between identity and similarity, between something’s identity and the kind of thing it is, how far identity is fixed by human interests, and especially whether identity over time is really coherent. But the special focus of philosophical debate has long been the topic of personal identity—how far this is distinct from that of our bodies and how far it is determined by our self-consciousness. Recent discussions have also emphasized the importance of our sense of our own identity, which perhaps gives a narrative unity to our lives.
Petrography
Authors: Degryse Patrick , Braekmans Dennis
Published: January 2017

Petrography has developed into an indispensable tool for ceramic fabric analysis, specifically studying the mineralogical and textural composition of ceramic objects. Petrography is a technique commonly used in geology to describe and classify rocks. Ceramic petrography studies clay-based archaeological or historical materials. Using a polarizing light microscope (PLM) in ceramic studies, the different raw materials used to make a ceramic object can be identified, ranging from clays and other minerals to rock fragments and inorganic or organic temper. The technique moreover feeds into the study of raw material provenance and origin, and is able to discern the different technological procedures followed to make the ceramic object (from shaping to firing), next to providing clues on the function of the object. This information not only helps reconstruct trade and exchange of raw materials and ceramics, but aids in reconstructing society behind the pot.
Ceramic Micropalaeontology
Authors: Wilkinson Ian , Quinn Patrick , Williams Mark , Taylor Jeremy , Whitbread Ian
Published: January 2017

Microfossils found in archaeological ceramics include representatives of kingdoms Fungi, Protista, Plantae, and Animalia and are composed of calcite, silica, or resistant organic compounds capable of withstanding firing. Methods by which microfossils are isolated for study vary considerably, but the best results involve the disaggregation of potsherds into their individual grains or by cutting petrological thin sections. Microfossils can be related directly to the age and depositional environment of the source materials (clays, temper, and slip) used in the manufacturing process, although the introduction of contaminants at the time of construction must also be recognized. When incorporated into an integrated analysis, the microfossils may demonstrate provenance; contribute to a better understanding of the local environment and landscape; identify transportation routes; contribute to an understanding of the technology used, including construction methods and firing; and elucidate the use to which the vessels were put.
Electron Microprobe Analysis (EMPA)
Authors: Ionescu Corina , Höck Volker
Published: January 2017

Electron microprobe analysis (EMPA) provides information on the chemical composition of minerals and their relationships in archaeological ceramics by utilizing a narrow electron beam to stimulate the emission of X-rays. Among various signals produced, the most important are the back-scattered electrons (BSE), the secondary electrons (SE) and the characteristic X-rays. The possibility to combine BSE images, SE images, elemental mapping and quantitative analysis offers a sound basis for integrated interpretation of the ancient ceramics. The precise compositional and fabric features resulted by EMPA are indicators of the raw materials and their provenance. Even when in small amounts, the composition of the newly formed phases enables narrowing down the technological constraints, such as firing temperature and atmosphere.
Raman Spectroscopy and the Study of Ceramic Manufacture
Authors: Vandenabeele Peter , Van Pevenage Jolien
Published: January 2017

This chapter discusses how Raman spectroscopy is used to study ceramic manufactures. Raman spectroscopy is a spectroscopic technique that allows non-destructive analysis, to obtain qualitative information about the investigated samples. It is used to study the mineralogy of the clay bodies and the glassy phases of glazed ceramics. Although the technique is widely known and used, investigation of ceramics with Raman spectroscopy is a challenge due to its weak effect and the heterogeneity of the ceramic ware. Improvements and developments concerning analysis of ceramics with Raman spectroscopy are still possible, for example, in the post-analysis of the obtained Raman data.
Mechanical and Thermal Properties
Authors: Müller Noémi S.
Published: January 2017

This chapter provides an introduction to mechanical and thermal properties of archaeological ceramics, which are of importance for a ceramic’s affordances and affect its suitability to be used in different activities. An overview of thermal and mechanical properties, namely fracture strength and fracture energy (toughness), thermal shock resistance and thermal conductivity, is provided, outlining the underlying principles of these properties and test methods typically used to measure them. Emphasizing the importance of potter’s choices during manufacture on the finished products’ material properties, the influence of different manufacturing parameters, in particular firing and tempering strategies, is discussed and underlying principles and mechanisms, which are applicable to a wide variety of commonly encountered archaeological ceramics, are elucidated.
Typology and Classification
Authors: Bortolini Eugenio
Published: January 2017

The systematic arrangement of empirical evidence is the necessary premise of any archaeological enquiry. If the process that generated an observed pattern has to be investigated, archaeologists need to choose scales and units of analysis that are appropriate for their specific context and the relative research questions. Typology, classification, and grouping techniques were developed in the last century so that archaeological datasets could be ordered and analyzed. This chapter provides an overview of the most relevant approaches to archaeological sorting. By presenting the history and development of the notion type, the emergence of diverging trends in archaeological thought is discussed. A brief digression on the basic tenets that link pottery typology to relative dating techniques is followed by an overview of the many, possible approaches to pottery description.
Statistical Modeling for Ceramic Analysis
Authors: Bishop Gulsebnem
Published: January 2017

Statistics can be used to describe, model, and predict archaeological data, provided that the analyst has an understanding of the strengths and limitations of their data type and has a well-defined statistical population. This chapter discusses the major types of archaeological data, sampling strategies, and statistics appropriate for both describing and predicting outcomes for simple and complex ceramic datasets. Description and modeling of complex data can be done with many tools ranging from simple charts and histograms to more complicated methods, such as T-Test, Chi-Square Test, Multi-Response Permutation Procedure (MRPP), and Kernel Density Estimation (KDE), as well as Principle Components Analysis (PCA).
Recycling Data
Authors: Boulanger Matthew
Published: January 2017

This chapter presents a brief overview of the recycling of data as it pertains to compositional analyses of archaeological ceramic artifacts. Although data recycling has been central to archaeology in general, and ceramic-composition studies in particular, the development of microcomputers with large storage capacities and of the World Wide Web have negated many of the obstacles that previously hindered storage, access, and re-use of data. Drawing from work on the preservation one of the largest ceramic-compositional databases in the world, this chapter argues that a historical perspective provides significant insight into how best to ensure newly generated data remain relevant into the future, and why doing so is an imperative of any scientific endeavor.
Ceramic Manufacture
Authors: Roux Valentine
Published: January 2017

This chapter presents an overview of the chaîne opératoire approach and recalls its relevance as a social and transmission signal. It describes the main components of the ceramic chaînes opératoires and the principles for identifying them on the archaeological material through diagnostic attributes including both surface features and microfabrics. Next, it takes a forward look at the classification of ceramic assemblages according to the chaîne opératoire approach in order to unravel the sociological complexity behind their variability. Finally, this chapter highlights the heuristic character of the chaîne opératoire approach when studying, on the synchronic axis, the techno-economic systems, and on the diachronic axis, changes in technical traditions considered as the expression of culture histories and the factors affecting them.
Imaging the Networks of Motor Cognition
Authors: Kilintari Marina , Papanicolaou Andrew C.
Published: January 2017

It has been suggested that we comprehend and imagine voluntary actions through the use of essentially the same neuronal networks that mediate their execution. Two hypotheses, named in the literature the “mirror” neuron and the “simulation” theory, both variants of the general notion of “embodied cognition” are briefly reviewed in the first section of this chapter in order to provide a context for the experimental findings presented in subsequent sections. The second and third sections juxtapose functional neuroimaging evidence largely supporting the embodied cognition theory insofar as recognition of actions and imagining of actions are concerned. The fourth and final section explores the clinical and the functional neuroimaging literature for evidence of a neuronal network that mediates our subjective experience of ownership of our own body.
Rethinking the Institutional Foundations of China’s Hypergrowth
Authors: Su Fubing , Tao Ran , Yang Dali L.
Published: January 2017

This article examines the institutional foundations of the remarkable growth of the Chinese economy, paying particular attention to official incentives, institutional constraints, and local developmentalism. It begins by outlining two approaches that explain the role of local officials as agents of economic growth: the fiscal incentives approach, which views local officials as revenue maximizers; and the fiscal federalism approach, which views officials as promotion maximizers. It then discusses the tournament thesis based on Chinese policy and empirical data before proposing a three-pronged framework that analyzes China’s political economy and explains why the country’s revenue-maximizing local officials have pursued a particular form of developmentalism since the early 1990s. This framework takes into account a number of phenomena in China’s economic development and transition, including massive industrialization and urbanization, local protectionism, the privatization of state-owned enterprises, and the rise of TVEs (township and village enterprises).
The Metaphysics of Propositions
Authors: King Jeffrey C.
Published: January 2017

Propositions have been long thought by many philosophers to play a number of important roles. These include being the information conveyed by an utterance of a sentence, being the primary bearers of truth and falsity, being the possessors of modal properties like being possible and necessary, and being the things we assume, believe, and doubt. This article canvases significant attempts by philosophers to say what sorts of things propositions are. First, the classical views of propositions advanced by Gottlob Frege and Bertrand Russell are considered. Second, the view of propositions as sets of possible worlds is discussed. Next, views of propositions arising out of work on direct reference are discussed. The article closes with a discussion of more recent views of propositions.
Re-enacting Historic Jazz Performances
Authors: McMullen Tracy
Published: January 2017

This article examines contemporary jazz reenactment in the context of the rise of live musical reenactments since the 1990s. The growth of tribute bands in popular music fulfills a long-standing cultural appetite for music that “repeats with a signal difference” through ironic tributes, but the growing prevalence of “clone” bands that depict the past with “painstaking precision” also reveals a yearning for repetition without a difference. Jazz, perhaps the musical archetype of repeating with a signal difference, has been increasingly repeated without a difference in this era. In order to understand this phenomenon and its ramifications, this article argues for the necessity to clearly recognize the different traditions of repetition that have accompanied jazz since its inception: a liberal humanist European tradition that supports our modern-day museum culture of “naming and taming” and an African American tradition that has not sought to locate objects and authors so precisely.
Secularism in Turkey
Authors: Sevinc Kenan , Hood Ralph W. , Coleman Thomas
Published: January 2017

This chapter provides a brief history of secularism in Turkey and discusses current political issues surrounding secularism. Is Turkey a secular country? This question is entangled in the emergent process of secularism in Turkey and its unique cultural and political history. In Turkey, secularism has little social or historical basis: it has been conducted by the hand of the state, was installed from the top, and emerged through external dynamics. Ataturk’s reforms toward secularism and secularization placed strict legal controls on Islam’s institutions and practices. The RPP Party and its Kemalism rely on republicanism, nationalism, populism, étatism, secularism, and revolutionism. The JDP party is more anti-Kemalist than antisecularist. A large moderate center is present among today’s voters, who mostly affirm democratic values and much freedom of religion. It appears a democratic and secular culture has settled into Turkey, as the only politically secular country with a Muslim majority population.
Soviet Atheism and Its Aftermath
Authors: Luehrmann Sonja
Published: January 2017

If Soviet atheism is a variety of secularism, it more resembles eliminationist movements viewing religions as obstacles to the political integration of citizens into the state. Before World War II, the Bolshevik government issued decrees to disentangle the state from the church. Later, Khrushchev emphasized atheism and closed churches as part of a general populist, mobilizational approach to promoting communist values. By the 1970s, religious practices were not precluded but were assigned a marginal space outside of public engagement. The post-Soviet era has seen self-reported religiosity increase, while self-reported atheism has diminished, although remaining significant. Russia’s 1997 law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations requires a denomination to exist in a region for fifteen years to enjoy the full legal and tax status. Today, Russia differentiates between “good” religions that help to promote particular moral visions and “bad” religions that create social strife, promote violence, and endanger public health.
Secular Education and Religion
Authors: Arthur James
Published: January 2017

This chapter explores how increasingly diverse and democratic societies reconcile issues of religion and secular education in public schooling, focusing on the American and European public school systems. It addresses ongoing legal conflicts in education and religion and explores some recent US Supreme Court and European Court of Human Rights decisions in this arena. In particular, it discusses the issues involved in the relationship between secular and religious conceptions in public schooling as well as exploring the increasingly controversial themes of religious symbolism, religious curricula content, neutrality, and secularism in public schooling. The chapter concludes with discussion of issues related to the tendency of some domestic courts and national legislators to secularize the meaning of religious symbols and the application of principles of secularism to determine neutrality in the educational field.
Separating Church and State in America
Authors: Niose David
Published: January 2017

The culture wars continue to rage in America. In many ways modern American culture is decidedly secular, with little indication that theological concerns play a significant role in the everyday lives of most ordinary citizens. But certain pockets of American society, defined by both geography and politics, continue to exalt traditional religion despite a general overall demographic trend toward secularity. These tensions play out in many ways in public life but nowhere more visibly than in the judiciary, where the two sides struggle to move the legal consensus in their direction. Terms that have been part of the American vernacular for centuries—“church–state separation” and “religious freedom”—still remain open to interpretation, with each side claiming that tradition and precedent favors them. Recent cases, addressing issues such as legislative prayer, LGBT rights, the Affordable Care Act, and the Pledge of Allegiance, do little to resolve these tensions.
Varieties of Secular Experience
Authors: Eller David
Published: January 2017

Investigators should discover how particular groups, institutions, and societies talk about and practice secularism—if in fact they do at all—rather than impose a speciously unified concept, derived from one society’s experience, on all places and times. A critical perspective on “the secular” is presented in this chapter, illustrating how to acknowledge and analyze its extraordinary diversity. Insights into African, Japanese, Jewish, Muslim, and American secular experiences illustrate that diversity. This exploration deconstructs the category “secular,” as scholars have already done with the category “religion.” Both terms—“the religious” and “the secular”—may or may not survive the exercise.
Secular Prosociality and Well-Being
Authors: Galen Luke
Published: January 2017

Many phenomena frequently attributed to the effects of religiosity (or to its absence) are, in reality, attributable to secular mechanisms. This can be observed in the domains of personal well-being and prosociality. Despite the commonly held theory that religious beliefs produce benefits such as greater morality and mental health, these associations are actually driven by nonreligious underlying mechanisms. This chapter examines claims made about religion’s benefits. Are there really “effects” of religion in these social domains that are quite distinct from secular effects? There are many reasons to doubt whether religiosity and spiritual belief are special and irreplaceable factors responsible for the benefits of living social lives. There are better reasons to conclude that only secular factors and natural causes explain prosociality and personal well-being.
The Evolution of Sociality, Helping, and Morality
Authors: Krebs Dennis , Denton Kaleda
Published: January 2017

Evolutionary theory offers an explanation for the emergence of, and variations in, sociality, helping behavior, and morality in both animals and humans. These traits evolved in some species to help them adapt to their environments. Humans possess them in abundance not because God created humans in his own image but rather because these traits were especially beneficial to early humans. To flesh out this general explanation, this chapter considers the ways in which social and moral adaptations helped humans and members of other social species (but not members of nonsocial species) propagate their genes. Humans are among the most social of all animals, and the structure of human groups has undergone several significant changes over time, adding stresses on moral motives. People can make impartial moral judgments, even when they do not foster personal interests, thanks to evolved processes enhancing motivations to make fair moral judgments.
Anglo-American Secular Government
Authors: Perry John
Published: January 2017

What has been called secular government in the United Kingdom and North America emerged from a series of debates about religious freedom and toleration, which reached their climax in seventeenth-century England. John Locke is often considered the hero of that climax, and his resolution to religion–politics conflict is now taken for granted as the basis of secular government in the United States, England, and Canada. It continues to influence Anglo-American political thought for both good and ill. Despite its success, the solution is imperfect. Subsequent modifications—including minor tweaks by various American Founders and a more recent re-appropriation by John Rawls—have failed to perfect it. Its most notable imperfection is a naïve hope that all imaginable future theopolitical disputes will be solved by abstract, neutral principles, specifiable-in advance of the disputes themselves. This leads to animosity and accusations of bias and call for ad hoc compromises.
Noël Coward
Authors: McHugh Dominic
Published: January 2017

Although dubbed ‘The Master’ by his admirers, Noël Coward was seen by his detractors as a ‘jack of all trades, master of none’, giving rise to a hermeneutic problem in categorizing the character and meaning of his output. Genre becomes a fallible tool in the exegesis of Coward’s musicals. He flitted deftly from revue to operetta, from original comedy to adaptation, from British to American models. Yet just as genre is often retrospectively extrapolated from key works to provide a framework for the scholar rather than a tangible taxonomy from the point of view of the artist, for Coward it might be argued that genre was a loose mode of reference rather than the essence of his musicals. This chapter proposes alternative strategies for analysing Coward’s work, referring to his life and overall output to argue that Coward’s musicals shaped his identity as much as his identity shaped his musicals.