bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
ʿAbdallāh ʿAzzām and Palestine
Authors: Hegghammer Thomas
Published: February 2014

ʿAbdallāh ʿAzzām (1941–1989) helped make jihadism more transnational by spearheading the effort to bring Muslim foreign fighters to Afghanistan in the 1980s. But why would a West Bank native devote himself to a war in Central Asia and not to the Palestinian struggle? In order to understand ʿAzzām’s unusual ideological trajectory, this article examines his relationship with Palestine, notably his experiences growing up in the territories, the extent of his involvement in the armed Palestinian struggle, and his views on the conflict with Israel. The article draws on previously underexploited primary sources, including ʿAzzām’s own writings, rare Arabic-language biographies, and interviews with family members. I argue that ʿAzzām’s Palestinian background predisposed him to transnational militancy. His exile in 1967 made him an aggrieved and rootless citizen of the Islamic world. His time fighting the Israel Defense Forces with the Fedayeen in 1969–70 gave him a taste of combat and a glimpse of pan-Islamic solidarity in practice. The inaccessibility of the battlefield after 1970 combined with ʿAzzām’s distaste for the leftist PLO led him to pursue the more accessible jihad in Afghanistan instead. There, he hoped to build an Islamist army that could reconquer Palestine. When Ḥamās rose as a military organization in the late 1980s, ʿAzzām embraced and supported it. Thus ʿAzzām was, to some extent, a byproduct of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Hebrew Bible and/as Second Temple Literature: Methodological Reflections
Authors: Teeter Andrew
Published: February 2014

Abstract

This essay offers methodological reflections on the relationship between studies of the Dead Sea Scrolls and studies of the Hebrew Bible. These reflections center around three main claims: (1) that the Hebrew Bible is Second Temple literature; (2) that the internal development of the Hebrew Bible is, in a specific and important sense, a history of exegesis; and (3) that Second Temple interpretation outside of the scriptural corpus is inseparable from the history of exegesis within it. These claims all point to the problematic and artificial nature of the boundaries between the two disciplines; and they illustrate how both fields require each other in order to understand their respective objects of inquiry in a rigorous and historically appropriate manner.
Jeremiah between Destruction and Exile: From Biblical to Post-Biblical Traditions
Authors: Goldstein Ronnie
Published: February 2014

Abstract

This article focuses on the affinities and divergences between the processes that the traditions about Jeremiah underwent within extra-biblical literature and those that occurred within the Hebrew Bible itself. The narratival frameworks of many of the pseudepigraphical stories about Jeremiah focus on the period following the destruction of the city and the traditions regarding Jeremiah’s fate in the wake of the destruction take a fluid form in post-biblical literature. Accordingly, the article deals particularly with the fate of the prophet by the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem; the traditions about Jeremiah in chains; the historization process linking Jeremiah and Gedaliah; the different geographical traditions regarding the location of Jeremiah after the exile; the development of the traditions regarding Jeremiah and his relation to Baruch; and the portraying of prophecy as needing preparation.
Voices within Ovid’s House of Fama
Authors: Kelly Peter
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Ovid’s depiction of the House of Fama, the goddess of Rumour, in Book XII of the Metamorphoses illustrates a complex relationship between voice, identity and text. This paper will argue that Ovid, through the House of Fama, reveals how the impossibility of maintaining the integrity of corporeality is related to the implausibility of claiming authority over any literary text. Ovid uses the concept of the rumour to inscribe the breakdown of the boundaries of the body and identity, in the context of the breakdown of the unity of the literary text, revealing how the voice we call our own, that is central to our sense of the singularity of the self, is made up of the voices of other people, and how the literary text is understood to be an unstable amalgamation of the voices of other authors.
Bo Shaojun and Her One Hundred Poems Lamenting My Husband
Authors: Idema Wilt L.
Published: February 2014

In the year following the death of her husband, the late Ming woman poet Bo Shaojun (d. 1626) wrote a set of one hundred quatrains lamenting him. Eighty-one poems of this sequence have been preserved. In his study Mindai josei no junshi to bungaku. Haku Shōkun no Kofushi hakushu (2003) the modern Japanese scholar Kobayashi Tetsuyuki argues that Bo Shaojun’s poems should be read as a report of her determination to follow her husband in death, and of the actions undertaken in preparation for that act. This review article questions his analysis by a close reading of some selected poems and Kobayashi’s interpretations, and concludes that the poems do not show evidence of a deliberate program of preparation for such a chaste and loyal suicide.
“Incarnational Art”: Thing Theory and Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood
Authors: McGuire Olivia
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Flannery O’Connor’s fiction confounds contemporary critics and readers with its combination of grotesque, violent imagery, and a deeply consistent, thematic concern with religion. This article argues for a new methodology of reading O’Connor that will enrich this seeming incongruence, by first examining the role of objects, such as those inWise Blood, through the lens of thing theory. Heidegger’s idea of the thing and Bill Brown’s thing theory offer readers a mode of interpreting objects that expands the traditional sense of symbolism and encourages a broader understanding of the multiple layers of significance—both the functional and metaphysical—encompassed in things that play a major role inWise Blood, such as the car, gorilla suit, and mummy. Through a close reading ofWise Blood, the author demonstrates thing theory’s potential as a tool to account for O’Connor’s incarnational aesthetic, and to overcome the tendency to relegate her fiction to purely religious or secular spheres.
Catching the Rat: Understanding Multiple and Contradictory Human-Rat Relations as Situated Practices
Authors: Beumer Koen
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Humans and rats relate to each other in a variety of ways. Consider the different ways that humans relate to rats in the sewer, the laboratory, and the living room: depending on the location of the encounter, human-rat relations can be characterized as hostile, instrumental, or friendly. Rather than searching for a single human-animal relation, this article suggests that the multiple and contradictory relations between humans and nonhuman animals deserve an explanation. The article argues that the multiplicity of human-animal relations can be better understood by approaching them as situated practices: as practical and precarious accomplishments that take place in specific settings. This approach is applied to the relation between humans and fancy rats. By studying how humans in particular settings come to befriend the same animal that is simultaneously despised and feared as dirty and treacherous when encountered elsewhere, the article shows how these relationships emerge as enactments of situated practices.
Encounters on the Frontier: Banteng in Australia’s Northern Territory
Authors: deKoninck Vanessa
Published: February 2014

Abstract

This paper considers the case of an introduced species that resides in what is now a jointly managed national park in the north of tropical Australia. Banteng (Bos javanicus) are a peculiar feral nonhuman animal in that they constitute a potential environmental threat within the domestic conservation goals of the park, but they also hold the prospect of being a major genetic resource in the international conservation of the species. Thus, perspectives on the use and management of these animals are varied between different actors in the park landscape, and are subject to fluctuations over time, especially in response to wider social and political circumstances. This paper argues that seemingly objective views of these animals are actually a series of subjectivities, which have less to do with any concrete aspects of the animals themselves and more to do with the way that particular people orient themselves toward, and within, the landscape.
What Can I Say? Implications and Communicative Functions of Rhetorical “WH” Questions in Classical Biblical Hebrew Prose
Authors: Moshavi Adina
Published: February 2014

Abstract

The rhetorical question is a sentence whose meaning is that of a question, but which is used to indirectly express an assertion. This paper examines content (“WH”) rhetorical questions in classical biblical prose, classifying them according to implications and communicative goals. Rhetorical questions have one of three types of implications: negative, specific, and extreme scalar implications. The content rhetorical question is found to be a versatile conversational device in the Bible, serving a variety of distinct communicative functions which operate on multiple levels. It is directly or indirectly connected to persuasion in most of its uses. The rhetorical question is in essence an intensifier, deriving its force on the higher-level of function from the implication of obviousness. In some cases, however, the choice of a persuasive form of communication rather than a more direct strategy has the effect of mitigation on the superordinate function level.
The Conundrum of ḥtr in Jonah 1:13
Authors: Meredith Christopher
Published: February 2014

Abstract

In this short note I wish to suggest that all the most obvious suggestions as to the significance of חתר in Jonah 1:13 make the verse more, not less, curious, and that the use of חתר in this context is not simply over-ebullient writing or a clunky metaphor (as commentators tend to suggest) but a genuine lexical conundrum with literary implications for the chapter. The extant Hebrew term is relatively unusual, not directly descriptive of the action of rowing (a function which several more common Hebrew terms for digging would perform nicely), and cuts across the other nautical knowledge evidenced in the chapter. Is there a literary explanation for the word choice that does not do violence to the chapter or stretch readerly credulity?
The Bilingual Character and Liturgical Function of “Hermeneia” in Johannine Papyrus Manuscripts
Authors: Cirafesi Wally V.
Published: February 2014

Abstract

In contrast to previous studies, this article argues that the use of ἑρµηνεῖαι in a group of Johannine papyrus manuscripts is fundamentally characterized by their occurrence in bilingual manuscripts or manuscripts influenced by a bilingual social setting (Greek-Coptic or Greek-Latin). Rather than seeing them as some sort of biblical commentary or oracular statements used for divination, it is suggested that, in light of their bilingual character, the Johannine ἑρµηνεῖαι functioned as liturgical tools to facilitate early Christian worship services needing to accommodate the use of two languages within a particular community.
Camouflaging Truth: A Biological, Argumentative and Epistemological Outlook from Biological to Linguistic Camouflage
Authors: Bertolotti Tommaso , Magnani Lorenzo , Bardone Emanuele
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Camouflage commonly refers to the ability to make something appear as different from what it actually is, or not to make it appear at all. This concept originates from biological studies to describe a range of strategies used by organisms to dissimulate their presence in the environment, but it is frequently borrowed by other semantic fields as it is possible to camouflage one’s position, intentions, opinion etc.: an interesting conceptual continuum between the multiple denotations of camouflage seems to emerge from the multiple homologies. Following this outlook, the first part of this paper aims at sketching out the main forms of camouflage as understood within their biological framework, insisting on the inferential dynamics underdetermined and allowing camouflage, making use of the concept of abduction as received from the Peircean heritage. The second part explores some of the most relevant occurrences of camouflage in dialectical and rhetorical perspectives. The third section aims at drawing the sums of the comparison between linguistic and biological camouflage, showing how strategies aimed at debunking verbal camouflage correspond to their respective countermeasures in biologically-intended camouflage.
For the Love of the Game: Implicit Arousal Following Symbolic Destruction of Sports Teams and Partners
Authors: Hood Bruce M. , Ataya Alia F. , Attwood Angela S. , Munafò Marcus R.
Published: February 2014

Abstract

The belief that damaging an object may harm the individual to which the object relates is common among adults. We explored whether arousal following the destruction of a photograph of a loved partner is greater than that following the destruction of a photograph of a stranger, and whether this response is greater than when a photograph representing a non-person sentimental attachment is destroyed, using a measure of skin conductance response. Long-term supporters of a football team, who were also in a long-term relationship, showed increased arousal when asked to destroy a photograph of their partner, but not a photograph of their team, even though both elicited equivalent ratings of emotional attachment. This may be because football teams are conceptualized differently from individuals. Future studies should address whether destruction of symbols that represent the enduring nature of the team elicit more emotional distress than photograph.
Iris photo-identification: A new methodology for the individual recognition of Tarentola geckos
Authors: Rocha Ricardo , Carrilho Tiago , Rebelo Rui
Published: February 2014

Gekkonid field studies are hampered by the difficulty to individually recognize individuals. In this study we assess the feasibility of using their variegated iris pattern to photo-identify Tarentola boettgeri bischoffi, a threatened Macaronesian endemic. Using a library of 924 photos taken over a 9-month period we also evaluate the use of the pattern matching software Interactive Individual Identification System (I3S) to match photos of known specimens. Individuals were clearly recognized by their iris pattern with no misidentifications, and using I3S lead to a correct identification of 95% of the recaptures in a shorter time than the same process when conducted visually by an observer. The method’s feasibility was improved by increasing the number of images of each animal in the library and hindered by photos that deviate from a horizontal angle.
Juvenile development of Dilocarcinus pagei Stimpson, 1861 (Brachyura, Trichodactylidae) reared in the laboratory, with emphasis on setae morphology
Authors: Vieira Rony R. R. , Rieger Paulo J. , Cichowski Viviane , Pinheiro Marcelo A. A.
Published: February 2014

The juvenile development of the freshwater crabDilocarcinuspageiStimpson, 1861 was studied under laboratory conditions, focusing on setae morphology. The ovigerous females were collected manually associated with water hyacinth at the Municipal Dam of São José do Rio Preto (São Paulo, Brazil). The specimens were raised in the laboratory under constant aeration, photoperiod (12 : 12 h) and temperature (27 ± 1°C). Twelve juvenile stages were obtained with descriptions of the main morphological characters that allow their identification are presented. Fourteen types of setae were discovered: dentate, denticulate, serrulate, papposerrate, cuspidate, plumose, plumodenticulate, plumoserrulate, simple, pappose, brush, curved, nail and setules. The greatest diversity of setae was found on the mouth appendages, especially the maxillule. The gill ontogeny and sexual dimorphism becomes apparent from the second juvenile stage onwards. At the third juvenile stage, the carapace begins to exhibit a wider shape, becoming similar to that of the adults.
A checklist of the Chilean Parastacidae (Decapoda, Astacidea)
Authors: Rudolph Erich H.
Published: February 2014

The family Parastacidae is represented in Chile by the genera Samastacus Riek, 1971, Parastacus Huxley, 1879, and Virilastacus Hobbs, 1991, and includes a total of six species. Its geographical distribution ranges from coastal areas to the Andean mountains, between the river Aconcagua (32°55′S 71°30′W) and the Taitao peninsula (46°30′S 74°30′W). These six species are: Samastacus spinifrons (Philippi, 1882), Parastacus pugnax (Poeppig, 1835), P. nicoleti (Philippi, 1882), Virilastacus araucanius (Faxon, 1914), V. rucapihuelensis Rudolph & Crandall, 2005 and V. retamali Rudolph & Crandall, 2007. All six species are endemic to Chile, with the exception of S. spinifrons which also inhabits Argentina and is the only species that inhabits lentic and lotic waters. The other five species are burrowers, inhabiting underground waters in semi-marshland zones where they build relatively complex burrows of varying depths. Present knowledge on the biology of these parastacids relates to: (a) taxonomy and phylogenetic relationships, (b) type and duration of embryonic and post-embryonic development, and (c) sexual system. Fragmentary studies have also been carried out on: (a) burrow morphology, (b) some physical/chemical parameters of water inside the burrows, (c) reproductive biology, and (d) aquaculture. These species are currently under threat, as a result of strong anthropogenic pressure which causes degradation of their respective habitats and, in some cases, such as S. spinifrons and P. pugnax, due to overexploitation as a human food source. Furthermore, in Chile there is no legislation to regulate the extraction, trade and transport of specimens. Only S. spinifrons is of interest for aquaculture purposes, in view of certain advantageous biological characteristics in comparison to other burrowing species. Nevertheless, certain intrinsic characteristics of parastacids, i.e., low fecundity and growth rate, late sexual maturity, very prolonged ovarian and embryonic development, together with deterioration of respective habitats and, in some species, overexploitation, have resulted in these species being classified as endangered Considering the aforementioned, it is important to study the life history, ecology and behaviour of each of these species, with the aim of compiling information that will permit the proposal and implementation of effective protection measures that, in turn, will ensure their conservation.
A checklist of the Chilean species of the genus Aegla (Decapoda, Anomura, Aeglidae)
Authors: Jara Carlos G.
Published: February 2014

The distributional pattern of the Chilean species of the freshwater crab genus Aegla is presented. The survey based in literature revealed that in Chile eighteen species and two subspecies can be found along the continental part of the country, namely: A. abtao, A. affinis, A. alacalufi, A. araucaniensis, A. bahamondei, A. concepcionensis, A. cholchol, A. denticulata denticulata, A. denticulata lacustris, A. expansa, A. hueicollensis, A. laevis laevis, A. laevis talcahuano, A. manni, A. neuquensis, A. occidentalis, A. papudo, A. pewenchae, A. rostrata and A. spectabilis.
The northern river shrimp Cryphiops caementarius (Decapoda, Palaemonidae). Research chronology between 1958 and 2008, I: distribution, population status, biology and life cycle
Authors: Morales Maria C. , Meruane Jaime
Published: February 2014

The present study is a review of the main inland water malacostracan species of northern Chile: Cryphiops caementarius (Molina, 1782). This species sustains the local fisheries in northern and central Chilean hydrographical basins. Cryphiops caementarius, in Chile known as the northern river shrimp, is endemic to rivers west of the Andes Mountains in Peru, and south from Chancay-Lambayeque River and the rivers in the northern Chilean littoral up to 32°55′S.

Research on this species in its natural habitat consigned between 1958 to 2008 was directed to population knowledge, including mainly the existing populations in rivers in the Regions of Atacama and Coquimbo. Important advances were also made with regards to the study of the embryonic development, biology, life cycle and reproduction that serve as a basis for the technological development of juvenile production in a controlled environment.
The northern river shrimp Cryphiops caementarius (Decapoda, Palaemonidae), research chronology between 1958 and 2008, II: aquaculture research and development in northern Chile
Authors: Morales Maria C. , Meruane Jaime
Published: February 2014

In Chile many experiments to artificially produce juvenile Cryphiops caementarius have been carried out in order to obtain enough stock for aquaculture or repopulation in natural habitats. The aquaculture production technology has been developed by the research staff of the Aquaculture Department of the Universidad Católica del Norte, with the aim of enhancing cultivation at commercial level, obtaining a sustainable production, and decreasing the fisheries pressure on natural populations. The latter is now based on the collection of ovigerous female obtained from their natural habitat. The research shows that it is possible to cultivate C. caementarius juveniles in 65 days through 18 zoeal stages.
Ecology of the malacostracans of northern Chilean inland waters
Authors: De los Rios-Escalante Patricio , Mardones Alfonso
Published: February 2014

The northern Chilean (18-27°S) inland waters have been poorly studied, because of difficulties in accessing the area, and the aquatic fauna is sculpted by the high conductivity. The few studies that are available are based on fragmented information on shallow mountain ponds associated with saline deposits (“salares”), and shallow ponds and the Loa river. The aim of the present study is provide a review of the malacostracan ecology of northern Chilean inland waters. The information of shallow mountain ponds and lagoons reveals the presence of the amphipods Hyalella fossamanchini and H. kochi. They are only found at low salinity levels (<3 g/l), although a different situation was observed for Loa river, which has low abundance populations of the northern Chilean river prawn Cryphiops caementarius and the amphipods H. fossamanchini and H. kochi. However the first species is scarce due excessive fisheries activities and habitat fragmentation, whereas there are no studies about amphipods populations. Nevertheless in Loa river these species can be an important prey for introduced salmonids (Oncorhynchus mykiss and Salmo trutta). Similar patterns were observed for other comparable ecosystems in the Andes mountains of Argentina and Peru.
Africa’s Land Rush and the Embedded Neoliberal State: Foreign Agricultural Investment in Ethiopia and Mozambique
Authors: Becker Derick A. , Becker Derick A. , Wittmeyer Hannah
Published: February 2014

Abstract

As changes to traditional economic power relationships upend the global economy, there is a resurgent interest in Africa’s raw materials by an increasing number of states beyond the traditional post-colonial coterie. These states are not fundamentally altering Africa’s status as a small economic player supplying raw goods to the world. But the level of interest, the states involved, and the changing nature of Africa’s involvement are raising questions about the long-term benefits and consequences of this renewed interest. Of particular concern is the trend in scale and type of commercial agricultural projects where land deals are slowly consuming vast sections of Africa’s agricultural land for export crops. NGOs, a few academics and virtually any news story on the subject inevitably invoke the term neo-colonialism. Our argument, however, is that the neo-colonial thesis – as well as the embedded state and neoliberal state theses taken separately – fail to capture the complexity of African commercial agriculture, particularly in the cases of Ethiopia and Mozambique. Despite ample evidence of massive, opaque land deals, investments do not tend to be restricted in bi-lateral ways nor are the investing parties members of the traditional Western world. While the role of elites is similar to the embedded state thesis, deals are mediated via wider market relations and conditions and justified in neoliberal terms. We propose that a synthesis of these latter theoretical strands better captures both the character and outcomes of African land acquisitions in our two case studies, and Africa at large.
Democracy and Scandal: A Research Agenda
Authors: Sass Jensen , Crosbie Thomas
Published: February 2014

Abstract

In a recent edition of this journal, Scott Brenton (2012) announced a refreshing perspective on the relationship between political scandal and liberal democratic institutions: though scandals are often thought anathema to democratic politics, a cause of public distraction or a sign of institutional degradation, their effect may actually be to reinforce and rejuvenate the polity. We consolidate and then challenge this perspective. We begin by reconstructing Brenton’s observations on scandal as a process model which we term the “scandal reform cycle”. We then suggest a raft of challenges to the model to reveal the complexity of scandals and their uncertain institutional effects. Our larger ambition is to articulate the relationship between scandal and democracy not as a simple question but rather as an ambitious and timely research agenda.
Fear Disarmed
Authors: Jeffries Fiona
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Fear is seen to be one of the defining political emotions of late modernity. Sociologists, artists, philosophers, activists, and pundits see fear everywhere. If fear has become a way of life, the contemporary city is seen to be one of its most prominent and productive social laboratories. However, while the growing fear scholarship argues that is such a politically significant emotion, the way it is studied often both naturalizes and exteriorizes fear from politics. As a result, fear’s antagonistic status as both a social relation and an arena of political action is submerged. In this article I raise the productive role of social protest and propose a different approach to thinking about, and acting in, the city of fear.
Crisis of What: The End of Capitalism or Another Systemic Cycle of Capitalist Accumulation?
Authors: Chase-Dunn Christopher
Published: February 2014

Abstract

In this article I discuss the nature of the current global systemic crisis in order to evaluate the likelihood of several possible futures in the next few decades. Employing a comparative world historical and evolutionary world-systems perspective, I consider how the constellation of antisystemic movements and challenging regimes are similar to, or different from, the challengers in earlier crisis periods. I use a structural analysis of social change to assess the probabilities of different outcomes, while acknowledging that the future, like the past, is somewhat open-ended and the somewhat unpredictable actions of individuals and groups can shift the probabilities that we are trying to estimate.
Can Green Capitalism Build a Sustainable Society?
Authors: Harris Jerry
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Marxists and radical environmentalists have argued that the never-ending drive for expanded accumulation and production is the fundamental reason that capitalism can never solve the environmental crisis, and in effect can only make the crisis more severe. Promoters of green capitalism also focus on the growth cycle of capitalism, but argue that new environmental technologies can out-compete and be more profitable than the destructive means of production now in use. Both arguments overlook the effects of economic crisis as another element in our confrontation with environmental calamities, and yet, crisis plays an important role in the improbability of capitalism building a sustainable society.
The Effect of Education, Employment, and Income on Reproductive Attitudes and Behavior of United Arab Emirates Married Women
Authors: Alibeli Madalla A.
Published: February 2014

Abstract

This study examines the effect of education, employment, and income on reproductive attitudes and behavior of United Arab Emirates married women. A sample of 1030 married women from the country’s seven Emirates were selected and interviewed by female researchers. To achieve the study’s objectives, descriptive and inferential statistics were used. Although it is found that the effect of education, employment, and income on reproductive attitudes and behavior is more complicated than previously thought in the literature, the results indicate no significant effect of education, employment and income on respondents’ reproductive attitudes and behavior.
Teaching Global Studies to All Undergraduates: A Required First-Year Course
Authors: Coker Jeffrey Scott , Haskell Rosemary , Nelson Thomas
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Global studies is an area that is foundational for a twenty-first century college degree. At Elon University, all first-year students take an interdisciplinary course called “The Global Experience” (GST 110) to set the tone for a globally-engaged liberal arts education. Personal and social responsibilities, which are goals of Elon’s core curriculum, provide the context for the course. Students analyze and evaluate the relationships that both connect and obstruct human interaction in an increasingly connected, technological, and rapidly changing world. In this article we explain the opportunities and challenges of delivering a course that has proved its flexibility and durability over many years.
Authenticity, Identity and Hegemony in the Context of Global Governance
Authors: Saluschev Sergey
Published: February 2014

Abstract

The narrative of authentic national identity, as being immutable, transcendent and endowed with sacrosanct qualities, has been inculcated into the public consciousness of every nation and constitutes an essential feature of one’s self-awareness in relation to the outside world. This proclivity for national exclusivity impedes the collective advancement of global civil society and undermines the ongoing efforts at forging effective democratic institutions of global governance.

Indeed, many societies blindly heed to the message of national exceptionalism and pledge allegiance to the integrity of their imagined community without critically scrutinizing their belief and understanding its consequences. First, in this article I argue that the notion of authentic national identity is fictitious because the concept of national identity is always fluid and constantly reconstructed. Second, the international community is functioning in the state of cognitive dissonance and therefore must recognize that in the era of globalization, nationalism has exhausted its social utility and is becoming increasingly detrimental to the welfare of global civil society.
Genesis: Paul Klee’s Temporalization of Form
Authors: Boehm Gottfried
Published: February 2014

Abstract

In addition to his artistic work, Paul Klee was a theoretician of the highest rank. Readings of his extensive writings evidence that he was a transformer of the immemorial eidetic concept of form toward its temporalization. As a standard he uses the mobility of nature and the cosmos, to which he anchors his generative concept of form. This essay concerns a reconstruction of some of his lines of argumentation from manuscripts that were not published during his lifetime. Among those are the role of the point (the “gray point”) as the source of linear and chromatic expression, the relation between kinesis and stasis in the work, and the models with which he analyzes the role of the artist and his position in the world. Klee’s insights are fruitful not only for an understanding of his own work but also for a history of the concept of form in the twentieth century.
Paul Klee’s Originary Painting
Authors: Vallega Alejandro A.
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Paul Klee’s sense of modern art and his own painting as the channeling of the originary movement of life leads to an insight beyond modern art, and back towards such dynamic cosmological experiences as that of the Onas people of Patagonia. In their daily life and their rituals their painted bodies expressed the living force of their cosmos (often the rituals marked the experiencing of transformation and passage), an originary energy that occurred at the limit of what one may call art and nature. In engaging Klee’s painting and drawing, one is brought to such an open space of living transformative movement; one finds a place wider than our present imagination, a time-space that in our being exposed to his works and experience remains for us to inhabit.
Crisis in the Global Economy: Financial Markets, Social Struggles, and New Political Scenarios, edited by Andrea Fumagalli and Sandro Mezzadra, Los Angeles: Semiotext(e), 2010; Finanza bruciata, Christian Marazzi, Bellinzona: Casagrande, 2009; Il comunismo del capitale. Finanziarizzazione, biopolitiche del lavoro e crisi globale, Christian Marazzi, Verona: Ombre corte/UniNomade, 2010; Dall’euforia al panico. Pensare la crisi finanziaria e altri saggi, André Orléan, Verona: Ombre corte/UniNomade, 2010
Authors: Palano Damiano
Published: February 2014

Abstract

The article considers the research developed by the UniNomade project concerning the global financial crisis within the theoretical framework of Italian ‘workerism’ and post-workerist theory. On the whole, the UniNomade project offers a rich variety of stimuli to debate. However, in the work of UniNomade, there are some problematic elements, particularly when the authors invoke a series of ‘excesses’ in ‘cognitive capitalism’. This review-article argues that the old post-workerist thesis of an obsolescence of the law of value introduces into UniNomade’s work an ambiguous determinism.
Hillbilly Nationalists, Urban Race Rebels, and Black Power: Community Organizing in Radical Times, Amy Sonnie and James Tracy, New York: Melville House, 2011; The Hidden 1970s: Histories of Radicalism, edited by Dan Berger, New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2010; Stayin’ Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class, Jefferson Cowie, London: The New Press, 2010
Authors: Malhotra Ravi
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Amy Sonnie and James Tracy’sHillbilly Nationalists, Urban Race Rebels, and Black Power, Dan Berger’s anthologyThe Hidden 1970sand Jefferson Cowie’sStayin’ Alive, in different ways, articulate an understanding of the political ferment that gripped the United States in the late 1960s and 1970s and its complex legacy for those struggling to change the world today. While Cowie provides a broad-brush if ultimately flawed overview of labour’s declining influence during the 1970s, Sonnie and Tracy focus their attention on five radical organisations that challenged deep divisions of race to condemn inequality and oppression, and Berger similarly encompasses contributions evaluating the impact of a variety of left organisations including the Puerto Rican nationalist movement, indigenous and Black nationalist quests to establish self-determination, and the extraordinary Sojourner Truth Organization. This review critically evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of the arguments made by Sonnie and Tracy, Berger and Cowie and suggests how they may be helpful for future struggle.
Camarades! La naissance du parti communiste en France, Romain Ducoulombier, Paris: Perrin, 2010
Authors: Birchall Ian
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Romain Ducoulombier, author ofCamarades!, a study of the origins of the French Communist Party, belongs to a different ideological context to earlier authors on the subject, such as Kriegel, Wohl or Robrieux. But though Ducoulombier claims originality for his work, there is little genuinely new here. He fails to grasp the impact of the Russian Revolution on the French working class and has little understanding of the dynamics of the Communist International. He stresses the ‘asceticism’ and ‘messianism’ of the early Communist Party without giving a precise meaning to these terms. Worst of all, Ducoulombier concentrates on archival material while saying remarkably little about the French Communist Party’s actual activities, notably work in the trade unions, anti-militarism and anti-colonialism.
Coverage of African Conflicts in the American Media: Filtering out the Logic of Plunder
Authors: Cook Christopher R.
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Through an analysis of the Liberian Civil War I argue that elite media and foreign policy decision makers share a classical set of assumptions about conflicts in the developing world that I call Westphalian. This paradigm privileges the Eurocentric nation state and its notions of power, ideology, and violence while intentionally or not, falsely reinforcing the rigid separation of government from the private economic sphere. In the end, this Westphalian lens of power obscures the new faces of transnational conflict networks and the importance of economic sub-state actors in creating violence based purely on economic motivations and greed
A Case for a Transforming Christology in South Africa
Authors: Vorster Jakobus (Koos) M.
Published: February 2014

Abstract

In the South African discourse on the political relevance of Jesus Christ, a vast array of conceptions of Jesus emerged over the years of the struggle, the liberation, the quest for spirituality and the theology of reconstruction. This discourse has taken place within the framework of the two broad historical movements of a “high” and a “low” Christology. In a recent thought provoking and informative article Mouton & Smit investigated four of the dominant discourses on Jesus in contemporary South Africa.1 They surveyed the discussions of Jesus in the popular news and newspaper debates, academic circles and scholarship, the worship and spirituality of congregations and believers, and public opinion about social and political life. After reviewing a huge corpus of South African literature on concepts of Jesus they ask the question whether Jesus was lost in translation in the South Africa of recent times. This article is an attempt to take the argument further. First of all, the investigation will provide another outline of the Christologies in the recent South African discourse within the broad framework of a “high” and a “low” Christology. The concepts under consideration are the spiritual Jesus, the political Jesus and the historical Jesus. Then a case will be made for the transforming Jesus of the Kingdom of God as a corrective on the Christologies of Apartheid, the liberation struggle and the modern-day post-modern projections of the historical Jesus.
Songs of Worship in Life and at Death
Authors: Davies Omar
Published: February 2014

Abstract

This article analyses and contrasts two songs that reflect on the meaning of life and death: the traditional hymn, ‘Farther Along’ and the song by late reggae icon, Peter Tosh, ‘Jah Say No’. Both songs consider how believers engage with the challenges of life; however, the comparison of these songs may be considered unusual as, while most Christians would accept ‘Farther Along’ as a religious song, there would be very few who would classify ‘Jah Say No’ in a similar fashion. Nevertheless, the lyrics of the two songs present diametrically different views of the nature of our earthly existence; hence, the comparison sheds light on diverse spiritual experiences in the Caribbean today.
Reconciliation as Public Theology: Christian Thought in Comparative Indigenous Politics
Authors: O’Sullivan Dominic
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Christian public theology extends reconciliation beyond its principal sacramental concern for relationships between God and penitent to the construction of ‘socially just’ public relationships for the settlement of intra-national conflict. In theological terms, reconciliation brings public relationships into what Hally calls ‘the Christ narrative of passion, death and resurrection’ in which the perpetrators of injustice repent and seek forgiveness. This article introduces the conflicts that these discourses aim to resolve in Australia, Fiji and New Zealand and explains and contrasts reconciliation’s relative importance in each of these jurisdictions. Moreover, the article’s cross-jurisdictional comparison shows reconciliation’s limits and possibilities as public theology, and argues that in Australia and New Zealand it has helped to create political environments willing to admit indigenous perspectives on a range of policy issues. On the contrary, however, the article also shows that the Fijian churches have distorted the concept of reconciliation to support political imperatives that are difficult to rationalize theologically, even though they are presented by the churches as being concerned with religious goals.
The Emergence of Mother Teresa as a Religious Visionary and the Initial Resistance to Her Charism/a: A Sociological and Public Theology Perspective
Authors: Alpion Gëzim
Published: February 2014

Abstract

The article focuses on the emergence of Mother Teresa as a religious visionary and the hostile treatment she received at the Loreto order in the late 1940s. Mother Teresa’s early career as an ‘independent’ nun is a useful case study to look afresh at some traditional views on the revolutionary nature of charisma, the initial reception of the ‘natural’ and charismatic leader, mainly the ‘deviant type’, and the ‘proofs’ expected from and provided by the ‘bearer of charisma’ in modernity. This article contends that approaching Mother Teresa’s charism/a from a sociological and public theology perspective reveals both the potential and the need for interdisciplinary research to explore the publicness of religion and engage further the academy with the life, work and legacy of this twentieth century religious leader.
Troubadour, Griot and Evangelist: The Compelling Narrative Rhetoric of ‘Erujeje’
Authors: Awodiya Daniel O. , Joseph Yvon
Published: February 2014

Abstract

The power of narratives as didactic tools, the repository of history, cultural knowledge and cultural identity is well known. Walter Fisher depicts stories as the sum of rhetorical expressions and applications of the pre-existing values of a community. Narratives and its corollaries—narrator, receptor (audience)—form a tightly woven knit. To be effective, the receptor must be complicit in the narrator’s jeu (game) which is to persuade the receptor of the fidelity and plausibility of the story. Numerous agents exploit the digital age as a new medium which has appropriated them a special niche in the arena of communication. In evangelism, Michael Fasina, also known as Erujeje, is at the heart of such a movement. This article is a treatment of Fisherian narrative and Aristotelian syllogism in an attempt to suggest that Erujeje, the Nigerian dramatist extraordinaire, combines those elements coupled with topoi familiar to his audience in order to proselytize.1
Word Order Flexibility and Adjacency Preferences: Competing Forces and Tension in the Greek VP
Authors: Georgiafentis Michalis , Lascaratou Chryssoula
Published: February 2014

The present paper aims at further investigating the relative degree of flexibility of constituent order in Greek, which has been classified as a free word order language (Tzartzanos 1946, 1963; Greenberg 1963; Philippaki-Warburton 1982, 1985, 1987; Lascaratou 1984, 1989, 1994, among others). In this study we present additional evidence in support of the view expressed in Lascaratou (1989, 1994, 1999) that, though very flexible, Greek word order is not completely free, but rather it is the result of tension between competing forces determining linear arrangements. Focusing on the analysis of various VP structures drawn from the Hellenic National Corpus (HNC)™, we observe that no single (syntactic and/or lexical/semantic) factor appears to override the others in a salient manner, the relative strength of each individual factor not always being clearly and reliably measurable. In particular, it seems that constituent length does not constitute a more important factor than the syntactic and/or lexical/semantic relations holding between elements in the Greek VP. What is more, with respect to the concept of “adjacency” put forward by Hawkins (2001, 2004) to interpret the preference for certain linearization patterns vs. others, we propose that constituent length essentially operates in a substantially different way and direction than syntactic and/or lexical/semantic dependency relations. More specifically, while—for parsing efficiency—constituent length may often be responsible for the postposition of heavy constituents thus resulting in the disruption of adjacency by separating elements which “belong together”, syntactic and/or lexical/semantic relations, on the other hand, intrinsically motivate the adjacency of elements which “belong together”, thus resisting any rearrangement that would bring them apart.
Conversion to Islam and the Promotion of ‘Modern’ Islamic Schools in Ghana
Authors: Skinner David E.
Published: February 2014

Abstract

This article analyzes the transformation of Islamic education frommakaranta(schools for the study of the Qurʾān) to what are called English/Arabic schools, which combine Islamic studies with a British curriculum taught in the English language. These schools were initially founded in coastal Ghana during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, primarily by missionaries who had converted from Christianity and had had English-language education or by agents of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission based in London. The purposes of these schools were to provide instruction to allow young people to be competitive in the colonial, Christian-influenced social and economic structure, and to promote conversion to Islam among the coastal populations. New Islamic missionary organizations developed throughout the colonial and postcolonial eras to fulfill these purposes, and English/Arabic schools were integrated into the national educational system by the end of the twentieth century. Indigenous and transnational governmental organizations competed by establishing schools in order to promote Islamic ideas and practices and to integrate Ghanaian Muslims into the wider Muslim world.
The Power of Distance: The Transformation of European Perceptions of Self and Other, 1100-1600
Authors: Knobler Adam
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Anthropologists such as Mary Helms have noted a historical linkage between the phenomena of perceived distance and perceived power. In this article I apply this paradigm to the history of European imperial expansion between the twelfth and the sixteenth century. In the Middle Ages, European popes and kings imbued the mythic ruler Prester John with great power in part because he was unseen and believed to live at a great distance. By associating the Mongols, and the Ethiopians after them, with Prester John, both of these peoples became an embodiment of this distance/power paradigm in Western European eyes. Latins hoped that the Mongols or Ethiopians would use their “power” to assist the West in their crusading battles in the Holy Land. When the Portuguese and Spanish began their voyages of expansion, they applied the same paradigm to the peoples they encountered in Asia, Africa and the Americas. When distance between Europe and these other continents was breached, however, the Iberian view of the others’ power diminished. Simultaneously, the Spanish and Portuguese perception of their own power increased as they, not “Prester John”, became the conquerors of distance.