Positioning and power in academic publishing: players, agents and agendas

The field of electronic publishing has grown exponentially in the last two decades, but we are still in the middle of this digital transformation. With technologies coming and going for all kinds of reasons, the distribution of economic, technological and discursive power continues to be negotiated. This book presents the proceedings of the 20th Conference on Electronic Publishing (Elpub), held in Göttingen, Germany, in June 2016. This year’s conference explores issues of positioning and power in academic publishing, and it brings together world leading stakeholders such as academics, practitioners, policymakers, students and entrepreneurs from a wide variety of fields to exchange information and discuss the advent of innovations in the areas of electronic publishing, as well as reflect on the development in the field over the last 20 years. Topics covered in the papers include how to maintain the quality of electronic publications, modeling processes and the increasingly prevalent issue of open access, as well as new systems, database repositories and datasets. This overview of the field will be of interest to all those who work in or make use of electronic publishing

Decontextualization and the Search for Origins: A Persian Architectural Fragment in the Ackland Art Museum

The Ackland Museum in Chapel Hill, North Carolina acquired a stone fragment from Mr. and Mrs. Osbourne Hauge in 1998. This piece has been referred to since as a “Stone Balustrade with Animal and Vegetal Decoration” by the museum. The museum catalogue emphasizes the aesthetic qualities of the piece rather than its nature as an architectural fragment due to a lack of information about the object’s origins. In order to move beyond the lost provenance of the object, I will analyze its relation to similar fragments in the Metropolitan Museum, Cleveland Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago and the David Collection in Copenhagen. I will incorporate fragments from the Hegmataneh Hill Museum (in Hamadan, Iran) in order to expand the corpus of known fragments beyond Euro-American collections. This thesis will examine these objects in relation to their current contexts and as a network of pieces rather than decontextualized fragments.Master of Art

Jardines de varias yardas en Irán: un fenómeno arquitectónico único

The art of gardening in Iran dates back to the second millennium BC. Iranians have long paid particular attention to combining architecture with the natural environment, and Iranian gardens are clear examples of this combination. This research aims to study and analyze a unique species of Persian garden called multi-yard gardens. These gardens have introduced a new aspect of Iranian landscape architecture. The research method in this research combines library studies with description, analysis, and comparison of the studied samples. Four examples of Iranian multi-yard gardens have been studied, of which, unfortunately, two have been almost destroyed in recent years, but sufficient information for their analysis has been recorded in historical documents. One of the actual results of this research was the analysis of spatial geometry and movement system in this type of Iranian garden in which privacy and view system are designed creatively.El arte de la jardinería en Irán se remonta al segundo milenio antes de Cristo. Durante mucho tiempo, los iraníes han prestado especial atención a combinar la arquitectura con el entorno natural, y los jardines iraníes son claros ejemplos de esta combinación. Esta investigación tiene como objetivo estudiar y analizar una especie única de jardín persa llamada jardín multipatio. Estos jardines han introducido un nuevo aspecto de la arquitectura del paisaje iraní. El método de investigación en esta investigación combina estudios de biblioteca con descripción, análisis y comparación de las muestras estudiadas. Se han estudiado cuatro ejemplos de jardines de varios patios iraníes, de los cuales, lamentablemente, dos han sido casi destruidos en los últimos años, pero se ha registrado información suficiente para su análisis en documentos históricos. Uno de los resultados reales de esta investigación fue el análisis de la geometría espacial y el sistema de movimiento en este tipo de jardín iraní en el que la privacidad y el sistema de vistas se diseñan de forma creativa

Fashioning The Pious Self: Middle Class Religiosity In Colonial India

Drawing on archival and ethnographic fieldwork, this dissertation examines the public construction of personal piety in nineteenth- and twentieth-century north India (1857-1930). The emergence of reformist piety, with its emphasis on individual responsibility and a focus on the self, is supposed to mark the privatization of religion, such that the public sphere becomes the site of politics and economy, and the household displaces the community as the locus of religiosity. This dissertation critiques the thesis of separate spheres to argue that the cultivation of middle class religiosity was an extremely public act that unfolded in the myriad spaces that opened up in the late nineteenth century. The middle class household, with the conjugal couple at its center, was inextricably linked to these spaces, whether it was a university campus, a newspaper office, a political rally, a fundraiser, or an arboretum in a hill station. Central to this thesis is the use of Michael Warner’s idea of discourse publics as an alternative framework to the Habermasian conception of the bourgeois public sphere. The emphasis on physical space makes room for understanding the household as a living social site of tellings and retellings that coexists with other overlapping publics and counterpublics. The reformist piety which became the hallmark of the middle class was fashioned under the watchful eyes of peers, superiors, and spouses in these spaces. It was appraised, acknowledged, emulated, and perfected through networks that belied the public-private divide. This dissertation focuses on the institution of the household as one such site in the network to suggest that the radical reordering of the household in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries enabled the emergence of personal piety. The history of reformist piety can be retold as the history of the reconfigured household. Furthermore, the re-imagination of the woman as a chaste and loyal spouse was fundamental to her elevation as an independent spiritual actor of the household. The spiritual independence of the wife, however, was predicated on her social, economic, and legal subordination to the husband

Morfologia de aldeias tradicionais no planalto central iraniano: estudo analítico para a compreensão do seu património

Tese de doutoramento em Architecture (especialidade em Architectural Culture)As aldeias encontram-se entre as primeiras formas de organização humana. A sua configuração tem sido moldada sob a influência de vários fatores, de modo a servir os seus habitantes. Assim, o presente estudo procura investigar o meio em que se construíram as aldeias tradicionais iranianas localizadas no planalto central e compreender o valor do seu legado. Através de uma análise detalhada, este trabalho tem como objetivo destacar as características únicas destes lugares, a sua importância histórica e cultural, e contribuir para a preservação e promoção dos seus patrimónios. Num primeiro momento foi levada a cabo a revisão da literatura, que enfatiza os aspetos chave da morfologia urbana, a história das formas de urbanização, e os fatores que influenciaram o seu desenvolvimento no Irão. Apesar do papel crucial desempenhado pelas aldeias na formação das cidades históricas no Irão, a literatura existente tem-se dedicado sobretudo aos centros de maior dimensão e conhecimento, ignorando as comunidades mais pequenas. Os diferentes fatores que contribuíram para a sua morfologia não têm também sido adequadamente considerados. Utilizando uma variedade de métodos e parâmetros para selecionar os estudos de caso, as aldeias escolhidas foram classificadas em três categorias principais: montanha, deserto, e fortificação, cada uma com características singulares. Em seguida, foi realizada uma análise minuciosa de três aldeias - Abyaneh, Qehi, Ghourtan - com base nos principais elementos da morfologia urbana, juntamente com uma abordagem qualitativa que considerou fatores ambientais e não ambientais. Essa análise envolveu ainda levantamentos, trabalho de campo e entrevistas. Para um maior entendimento, foram produzidos desenhos em diferentes escalas e resoluções para cada estudo de caso. Os resultados desta pesquisa não só estabelecem um caminho para estudos futuros, mas também introduzem de forma clara uma metodologia de análise dos fatores influentes. Esta abordagem oferece um modo mais eficaz de investigar estas aldeias, permitindo uma compreensão dos principais fatores que influenciaram o seu desenvolvimento. Este conhecimento é, portanto, essencial para a compreensão do património histórico destas aldeias e relevante para o planeamento e esforços de conservação destinados ao seu desenvolvimento sustentável. Em última análise, este trabalho tem como objetivo poder impactar na perceção estratégica deste património, atribuindo-lhe um papel instrumental no bem-estar das comunidades locais.Villages are among the first human settlements. Their traditional form has been shaped under the influence of various factors to meet the needs of the residents. The purpose of this research is to investigate the built environment of traditional villages located in the Iranian central plateau with the main objective of gaining a thorough understanding of their heritage value. Through a detailed analysis, this study aims to uncover the unique features, cultural and historical significance of the villages, and contribute to the preservation and promotion of cultural heritage. To begin with, a comprehensive review of the literature is conducted, emphasizing the key elements of urban morphology, the history of urban form, and the factors that have influenced settlements in Iran. Despite the crucial role played by villages in shaping historical cities in Iran, the existing body of research has primarily focused on larger and well-known cities, disregarding smaller communities and villages. Furthermore, the various factors that shaped these villages have not been adequately considered thus far. Using a range of methods and parameters for selecting case studies, the chosen villages have been classified into three main categories: mountain, desert, and fortress, each with unique built features. A detailed examination was then conducted to three villages - Abyaneh, Qehi, Ghourtan - based on the main elements of urban morphology schools together with a qualitative approach that considers environmental and non-environmental factors. This analysis further involved surveys, fieldwork and interviews. To facilitate the analysis, different drawings were produced for each case study, varying in scales and resolutions. The findings of this research not only establish a comprehensive framework for future studies but also transparently introduce a methodology to analyse influential factors. This approach offers an enhanced and more effective means of researching these villages, thus facilitating a clear understanding of the primary factors that have influenced their development. This knowledge is essential for understanding the historical heritage of these villages and beneficial to consider in planning and conservation efforts aimed at their sustainable development. Ultimately, this work aims to impact the strategic perception of heritage, positioning it as an instrumental role for the overall well-being of local communities

Indo-European vocabulary in Old Chinese : a new thesis on the emergence of Chinese language and civilization in the late Neolithic age

This study is a much expanded version of the paper I read at the XXXII International Congress for Asian and North African Studies on August 28, 1986 in Hamburg (Germany). Contents 1. Recent developments in the field of historical linguistics 2. Monosyllabic structure of Chinese words and Indo-European stems 3. Tonal accents of Middle Chinese 4. Preliminaries on the comparison of consonants and vowels 5. Some IE stems corresponding to Chinese words of entering tone 6. Middle Chinese tones and final consonants of IE stems 7. Some IE stems corresponding to Chinese words of rising tone 8. Some IE stems corresponding to Chinese words of vanishing tone 9. Some IE stems corresponding to Chinese words of level tone 10. Reconstruction of Middle Chinese vocalism according to Yün-ching 11. Old Chinese vocalism 12. Vocalic correspondences between Chinese and IE 13. Initials of Old Chinese 14. Initial consonant clusters in Old Chinese as seen from IE-stems 15. Proximity of Chinese to Germanic 16. Relation of Old Chinese to neighboring languages 17. Emergence of Chinese Empire and language in the middle of the third millennium B.C. Appendix * Abbrevations * Bibliography * Rhyme Tables of Early Middle Chinese (600) * Rhyme Tables of Early Mandarin (1300) * Word Index o English o Pinyin In 1786, just over two hundred years ago, comparative historical linguistics was born, when Sir William Jones (1746-1794) discovered the relationship between Old-Indian Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin. Since then, the emerging Indo-European philology has thrown much light on the early history of mankind in Eurasia. During the past two hundred years, many suggestions were also made in regard to relationships of Indo-European to other languages such as Semitic, Altaic, Austronesian, Korean etc., but Indo-Europeanists commonly rejected such attempts for want of convincing evidence. As to Chinese, Joseph Edkins was the first to advance the thesis of its proximity to Indo-European. In his work China's Place in Philology. An Attempt to show that the Language of Europe and Asia have a Common Origin (1871) he presented a number of Chinese words similar to those of Indo-European. In his time, Edkins' thesis seemed bold and extravagant. But today, more than a hundred years later, we are in a much better position to carry out a comprehensive and well-founded comparative study. Since the end of the nineteenth century, many Sinologists have been engaged in reconstruction of the mediaeval and archaic readings of Chinese characters. Among them, Karlgren (1889-1978) was the most successful, and in 1940 he published a comprehensive phonological and etymological dictionary entitled Grammata Serica. In the meantime, the Indo-Europeanists Alois Walde (1869-1924) and Julius Pokorny (1887-1970) were devoting themselves to the compilation of a useful etymological dictionary. The result was the Indogermanisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch by Pokorny (1959) which provides a solid basis for our lexical comparisons. Soon thereafter, some Sinologists made use of the two dictionaries by Karlgren and Pokorny to compare Chinese and Indo-European words. In 1967, an unaffiliated German scholar, Jan Ulenbrook, published an article "Einige Übereinstirnrnungen zwischen dem Chinesischen und dem Indogermanischen", in which he claimed that 57 words are related. Shortly afterwards, Tor Ulving of the University of Goteborg, Sweden, wrote a review of this article framing the title as a question: "Indo-European elements in Chinese?" While working on his thesis on word families in Chinese, Ulving compiled for his own use two dictionaries: "Archaic Chinese - English" and "English - Archaic Chinese", and discovered thereby 238 Chinese words similar to Indo-European roots. In spite of this considerable number of word equivalents, however, Mr. Ulving became discouraged and, as he told me in his letter of April, 1986, has given up his researches in this field. The skepticism, common among Indo-Europeanists in regard to comparative studies with other languages, is largely based on the dogmatic opinion that only morphology is relevant but not vocabulary. Since the typology of Chinese seems to preclude a cognate relation to Indo-European, they are inclined to discard any lexical correspondences as merely accidental or onomatopoetic. Besides, prehistorical contacts and mixtures between these languages seem not conceivable, as the Indo-Europeans are supposed to have originated in Northern Europe or at best in the Central Asian steppe, thousands of miles away from East Asia. Hence, any research into a relationship between Old Chinese and Indo-European languages would be but futile from the outset. Yet there are also opposing views among Indo-Europeanists. Investigations into Germanic languages and the oldest Indo-European language, Hittite, led some of them to a critical revision of the prevailing conception about a Proto-Indo-European. Hermann Hirt (1934) for instance states: "Inflexion of Indo-European languages is due to a relatively late development, and its correct comprehension can be achieved only by proceeding from the time of non-inflexion." And Carl Karstien (1936) holds the opinion that "Chinese corresponds most ideally to the hypothetic prototype of Indo-European." Regarding vocabulary, there are striking similarities in the monosyllabic structure of the basic words. In modern German and English, all the words of everyday speech are monosyllabic and their stereotypical structure is: initial consonant(s) + vowel(s) + final consonant(s). The same word structure is valid for Chinese as well. It is fundamentally different from the disyllabic structure of Altaic words and from the triconsonantal-disyllabic structure of Semitic words. Characteristic of the monosyllabic word structure is, besides, the complexity of the syllable nucleus, which consists of different vowels and vowel clusters in contrast to the monophthongal vocalism of polysyllabic words. Another objection raised to comparisons between Chinese and Indo-European is the existence of tonal accents in Chinese. Since most modern Indo-European languages have only expiratory accents, Chinese is considered to be a highly exotic language. Yet, even in Chinese, the use of tonal accents as a means of lexical differentiation is a result of comparatively recent development in the long history of Chinese language, the earliest monuments of which date back to 1300 B.C. (cf. Chang 1970, p.21). Unknown to Old Chinese, the existence of tonal accents was for the first time mentioned in the 5th century by Shen Yüeh (441-513). In Middle Chinese (Mch.) there were four tone categories: A P'ing-sheng 平 a level tone (which developed into Mandarin tone 1 or 2). B Shang-sheng 上 a rising tone (Mandarin tone 3). C Ch'u-sheng 去 a vanishing, i.e. falling tone (Mandarin tone 4). D Ju-sheng 入 an entering tone with a staccato effect, the word being abruptly stopped by a final consonant -p, -t, -k. (In Early Mandarin the words of this tone lost their final consonant and were distributed among the tones 2, 3 and 4, respectively according to the phonation of initials). In Middle Chinese, words of the entering tone were the only group which still preserved the final stops and therefore a close syllabic structure. So they are most appropriate for convincing comparisons with monosyllabic Indo-European word stems. The final stops -p, -t, -k of the entering tone are nowadays still extant in daily speech of several dialects in South China as well as in Chinese borrowings in Japanese, Vietnamese and Korean. As a speaker of a Taiwan dialect of Minnan origin, I could immediately identify some Indo-European stems with corresponding Chinese words. Besides, the command of Japanese and German was also a great help for this study. In the following lists I have chosen a number of Indo-European stems which are phonetically and semantically equivalent to Chinese words. Correspondences in initial and final consonants refer to the points of articulation, thus we have equations: IE labials = Old Chinese labials, IE dentals = dentals, IE l, r = dentals (cf. p. 31); Ø, i (final and medial) IE velars = velars and laryngeals, and occasionally (the so-called "satem"-forms) IE velars = dental sibilants and affricates. Regarding the manner of articulation, there are no regular correspondences between Indo-European and Chinese consonants like Grimm's law which is valid among Indo-European dialects to a certain extent. But this is not astonishing, since in Old Chinese the alternation of initials in voicing was a conventional means of creating new words from one basic form. The rules of vocalic correpondences among Indo-European dialects are quite complex. Vowels permanently change their qualities from one language to another, and from time to time within one language also, as is well known from the history of English pronunciations. Generally, the vocalism of Old Greek is taken as the standard for Proto-Indo-European. Old Chinese vowels corresponds nearly (cf. p. 30), but the details about the reconstruction of Middle and Old Chinese vocalism will be treated later (pp. 26-30). For the moment, it is necessary to notice in advance that the stem of ablauting Germanic verbs is the form of preterite or noun, rather than that of infinitive as assumed hitherto. Therefore, in some cases I must slightly modify the basic vowel of verbal stems given in Pokorny, in order to get better basis for comparison. As Old Chinese verbs were non-flexional, they might probably have preserved the original vowel the best

The Empty Locus of Power: Production of Political Urbanism in Modern Tehran

Is there a connection between power struggles and urban context? How the urban space used for the symbolic manifestation of power and social control? How urban space becomes the site of conflict and resistance? How urban nodes like squares became political apparatus in social demonstrations and revolutions? How do specific squares become symbols of revolutions? This thesis investigated these questions by viewing the city as a place formed by politics, which built upon the central concept of Meydan (Public Square), as the “political order in the ideogram of the city”. Focusing on public squares, it traces their sociopolitical transformations as well as their role in instigating social transformations through examples that span from the pre-modern times to the present. As the embodiment of the square in the image of the city, the historical, social and theological concept of Meydan- a term, which has mostly applied, for Iranian public squares has been studied. The Empty Locus of Power rereads squares as peculiar urban forms and representations of political ideas, when the squares of the city has become the stage for the process of politicizing, de-politicizing or neutralizing space. This thesis tries to analyze the square beyond an architectural element in the city, but weaves this blank slate, with its contemporary socio political atmosphere as a new paradigm. This interpretation, suggested the idea of Meydan as the core of the projects on the city, which historically exposed in formalization of theological ideologies. Regarding this issue, urban space of traditional Iranian cities introduced as the medium through which theological ideologies and political sovereignty took place. In pursuing such analyses, this research engages with issues ranging from details of political histories of the case studies in public squares to the master plan of the city of VIII Tehran. During the recent century, various political events and social demonstrations have been staged in Tehran as Middle Eastern Capital, which emphasize the further discussions for analyzing the relationship between socio-political dimensions of city and its urban projects that ultimately led to occupy the city and reclaim the public spaces in Iranian Islamic Revolution of 1979. In this sense, analyzing the major political events in modern Tehran as a city loaded with politics will lead to trace the processes of its spatial transformation. In this regard, the thesis examines the relationship between affordances of public spaces, their histories, and the emergence of social events and movements. Building on this theoretical framework, this thesis stresses on the transformative dynamism of autocratic modernization, which motivate or shape a creative tension in the form of the city. The emergence of representative pseudo political public space for demonstration of power and national identity during the First Pahlavi Era (1925-41), reoccupation of public spaces by social movements and political parties during the nationalization of Iranian oil movement till 1953 Iranian coup d'état will be the second part and socio- political arrangement of capital as ‘Metropolis of Tomorrow’ and its urban transformation during the second Pahlavi Era (1941-79) till Islamic Revolution have been examined. Analysis suggests that spatial transformations and modernization politics have led to or facilitated (directly or indirectly and, or inadvertently) political changes. Building on the foundation of knowledge established in this research, the final part of research focuses on the centrality of squares in recent social protests. Using Middle East sociologist, Asef Bayat’s theory of ‘Spatialities of discontent’, the final chapter explores the spatial dimension of political spaces of the city and aims to theorize the necessity of urban social movements to approach democratic space in a global context

Public domain as the foundation of civic life: a systemic approach to urban issues - a case study on Tehran

Urban spaces act as systems and providing they have appropriate functions, they can develop and evolve public domains in a way to generate, revive and act in accordance with the continuity of civic life. Any intervention inside a city and any projects undertaken generate new spaces, elements and facilities in order to fulfil the ever -changing expectations of the citizens and to satisfy their various anticipations of civic life. These new spaces and realms necessarily ought to be in line with (covert or overt) active urban patterns. This study and research is based on the hypothesis that a systemic method and approach can be employed to do deal with and engage in interactions with city spaces and urban problems. In this regard there is a review of the systemic approach and the way this approach helps explain and explore urban issues. Subsequently, a fresh theoretical framework is devised. Also in the first section the appropriate research methods for this study are explained. The Navvab Project is a new urban project that has had a broad intervention in the urban context of Tehran. This study deals with this project as a model for assessing effective systemic functions in an urban system. Tehran as a complex and multifaceted in the contemporary world was chosen as the field of study, within which the Navvab Project (comprising of several projects) was taken as the case study. In the second section the field and the case study are explained in detail. Various research methods, including survey, documentary analysis and participation observation, were used in this study to provide a better understanding of these elements. After inquiring into the methodological approach of this project, its strong and weak points are highlighted, and finally, a model is presented for engaging with a city and its related issues. The aforementioned research method, a combination of questionnaire, participatory observation, documentary and library methods, was employed to analyze the data obtained from the case study (section three) paving the way for further discussion and conclusion. In the final section a conclusion is drawn based on the field work and case study; showing that a systemic approach provides a framework for understanding complex urban problems and formulating solutions but the resulting model is also convenient and practical, and provides a better vehicle for people -led urban planning than orthodox methods. Through a systemic approach, in which the public domain and public space are considered as the bedrock of civic and urban life, a model is presented. This model attempts to introduce a system of producing and reproducing public spaces inside a city. Together with the model, examples of its applications in solving the problems of the case study is assessed, indicating that the remaining opportunities, the unused and accessible locations in the Navvab Project can be used as a catalyst for producing new spaces and restructuring existing ones