Heritage destruction and videogames:a pervasive relation

This paper examines the history of the National and University Library in Sarajevo, and particularly the destruction of the site and how it has been represented with different meanings across various media. The second part of the paper will analyse the representation of the library (post-reconstruction) in the videogame Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2’s Act 2 (called ‘Ghost of Sarajevo’), in order to raise issues about the ethical representation of a heritage site that has not only been destroyed and reconstructed, but that it is part of a national heritage

Contextual religious education and the interpretive approach

This article responds to Andrew Wright's critique of my views on the representation of religions. Using various literary devices - associating my work closely with that of others whose views are in some ways different from my own, referring very selectively to published texts and exaggerating, and sometimes misrepresenting, what I actually say - Wright presents my work as dualistic, nominalist and as not genuinely hermeneutical. Wright contrasts what he sees as my extreme idea of religions as 'constructions' with his own view of them as 'social facts'. My reply illustrates and responds to Wright's account of my work, clarifies my own position and raises questions about Wright's views, especially in relation to those of Gavin Flood, whom he cites with favour. My conclusion includes the suggestion that, although our epistemological positions are different in some ways, they spawn pedagogies utilising some common principles and values

Heritage destruction and videogames:ethical challenges of the representation of cultural heritage

Representations of historical or cultural sites in videogames have always been contested by videogames scholarship, arguing that historical games often court controversy. This paper examines the history of the National and University Library in Sarajevo, particularly the destruction of the site and how it has been represented with different meanings across various media. The second part of the paper will analyze the representation of the library (post-reconstruction) in the videogame, Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2’s Act 2 (called ‘Ghost of Sarajevo’), in order to raise issues about the ethical challenges of the representation of a heritage site that has not only been destroyed and reconstructed, but that it is part of a national heritage.The analysis shows that there are important pressures derived from the ways in which videogames represent heritage which has gone through a process of destruction, and how videogames adapt a historical event following formal videogame conventions. The paper concludes by pointing out the benefits of studying cases such as the National and University Library in Sarajevo, as well as new avenues of research regarding the representation of contested cultural sites in videogames

Ethnography And Discourse Analysis: Dilemmas In Representing The Voices Of Children

How can researchers produce work with relevance to theoretical and formal traditions and requirements of public academic knowledge while still remaining faithful to the experiences and accounts of research participants based in private settings? Feminist Dilemmas in Qualitative Research explores this key dilemma and examines the interplay between theory, epistemology and the detailed practice of research. It does this across the whole research process: access, data collection and analysis and writing up research. It goes on to consider ways of achieving high standards of reflexivity and openness in the strategic choices made during research, examining these issues for specific projects in an open and accessible style. Particular themes examined are: the research dilemmas that occur from feminist perspectives in relation to researching private and personal social worlds; the position of the researcher as situated between public knowledge and private experience; and the dilemmas raised for researchers seeking to contribute to academic discourse while remaing close to their knowledge forms. This chapter examines these themes in particular relation to representing children's accounts in the public sphere

Must Realists Be Pessimists About Democracy? Responding to Epistemic and Oligarchic Challenges

In this paper we show how a realistic normative democratic theory can work within the constraints set by the most pessimistic empirical results about voting behaviour and elite capture of the policy process. After setting out the empirical evidence and discussing some extant responses by political theorists, we argue that the evidence produces a two-pronged challenge for democracy: an epistemic challenge concerning the quality and focus of decision-making and an oligarchic challenge concerning power concentration. To address the challenges we then put forward three main normative claims, each of which is compatible with the evidence. We start with a critique of the epistocratic position commonly thought to be supported by the evidence. We then introduce a qualified critique of referenda and other forms of plebiscite, and an outline of a tribune-based system of popular control over oligarchic influence on the policy process. Our discussion points towards a renewal of democracy in a plebeian but not plebiscitarian direction: Attention to the relative power of social classes matters more than formal dispersal of power through voting. We close with some methodological reflections about the compatibility between our normative claims and the realist program in political philosophy

The myth of 'the myth of Irish neutrality': deconstructing concepts of Irish neutrality using international relations theories

A number of academics, journalists and political elites claim that Irish neutrality is a 'myth', and many also characterise public support for Irish neutrality as 'confused' and 'nonrational'. This 'unneutral' discourse in the academic literature and mainstream Irish media is based on an academic thesis, that of an Unneutral Ireland. The Unneutral thesis constructs a particular concept of neutrality in order to draw its conclusion that Ireland is 'unneutral'. Using a poststructuralist approach--a rarity in the discipline of International Relations (IR)--this paper deconstructs concepts of Irish neutrality using a framework of IR theories. The results show that the concept of neutrality put forward in the Unneutral Ireland thesis and the dominant discourses on Irish neutrality are based on a hegemonic IR theory, the theory of neorealism, rather than on seemingly 'objective' scientific research methods. The paper concludes that non-realist theories and approaches may provide a better understanding of Irish neutrality and of the dynamics of public support for Irish neutrality

A world of their making: an evaluation of the constructivist critique in international relations

IR constructivism maintain that a proper understanding of the way subjects interact with the world and with each other alerts us to the fallacy of conventional IR theory. And yet, for a theory that is so obviously dependent upon a rigorous working of the relationship between social theory and its IR variant, it is curious that, with one or two exceptions, IR constructivists often advance incompatible theories. I argue that the confused manner by which, in particular, ‘soft’ constructivism relates to social theory is not accidental but a necessary component of a theory that asserts, but never proves, the primacy of norms and laws over material considerations, in domestic and international politics

Value creation and change in social structures: the role of entrepreneurial innovation from an emergence perspective

Aim: Our aim is to develop a more complete understanding of how processes that entrepreneurs perform interact with wider society and the causal effects of society on entrepreneurial behaviour and vice versa. We aim to show how entrepreneurial agency is put into effect in relation to the disruption of social structure and social change. This has implications for innovation and entrepreneurship policy and practice, and for entrepreneurship theory. We also investigate the role of ‘value’ in these processes. Contribution to the literature Our central argument is that emergent forms (or ‘emergents’) may be short lived (ephemeral) but have causal power on the performance of the actors in the system of inter-relationships in the innovation ecosystem. The emphasis on inter-related social processes and ontological stratification provides theoretical development of extant entrepreneurship theory on new venture creation (by explaining process), effectuation (by linking individualism and holism) and opportunity recognition (by deconstructing opportunity into anticipation, ontology and process). Methodology The paper takes an 'emergence' perspective as a way to understand entrepreneurial processes that give rise to innovation. The anticipation of value and the inter-relationship with social and organisational structures are fundamental to this perspective. A longitudinal analysis of a case study of the development of a new business model within an entrepreneurial firm is described. The case is followed through seven phases in which the relationship between process and emergent ontological status is shown to have destabilising and stabilising effects which produce emergent properties. Results and Implications One methodological contribution is framing how to conceptualise the empirical evidence. Emergents have causal effects on the anticipations of value inherent in their particular system of innovation. This causality is manifest as the attraction of resource in the firm; the stabilisation of the emergent constitutes strategy in the enterprise. A key role of the entrepreneurs in our case study was the creation and maintenance of evolving ontological materiality, as meaningful to themselves and to those with whom they interacted. In simple terms, they made things meaningful to people who mattered

Voices from the margins: ‘Black’ Caribbean and Mexican heritage women educators in the rural south

This paper explores the ways in which immigrant and migrant women educators in the rural South understand and construct narratives of their lives. The ‘Black’ Caribbean and Mexican heritage women educators in this study experience and interpret events in their lives, as women, minorities, postcolonial ‘subjects,’ and outsiders in the rural South, a region traditionally dominated by white patriarchal norms and prejudices. We assert that from this position of multiple marginality they construct important insights into the nature of education in the rural South. As so-called “Third-World women” living in the “First World” of the United States, the interpretations that this group of immigrant and migrant women make of their lives illuminate the ‘real,’ yet fluid (Moya & Hames-Garcia, 2000), nature of identity and representation in this nation and in the “New” South. The experiences of these women clearly reveal that identity categories provide useful theoretical and practical understandings of often problematic constructs such as race, gender, social class and ethnicity and highlight the fact that experiences and interpretations vary within and across these identity categories. Thus, how these women respond to the South demonstrates the impact of significant continuities and discontinuities as these educators negotiate their identities in unfamiliar spaces