'1966 and all that': trends and developments in UK ergonomics during the 1960s

The 1960’s represent a key decade in the expansion of ergonomics within the UK. In this paper we review trends and developments that emerged out of the 1960’s and compare these with ergonomics research and practice today. We focus in particular on the expansion of ergonomics as a discipline within industry, as well as more specific topics such as: the emergence of areas of interest such as computers and technology; automation and systems ergonomics; and, consumer ergonomics. We illustrate our account with a detailed timeline of developments, a set of industrial case studies and the contents of important publications during the decade. A key aim of the paper is to provide the opportunity to reflect on the past and the implications this may have for future directions for ergonomics within the UK

Reconstructing 830 Simpson Avenue; An Archaeological Investigation of Household Life Cycles in a 19th and 20th Century Working-class Neighborhood

The Simpson Avenue site is a household site dating to the 19th and 20th centuries. It is located on Hamline University’s current campus in the ‘backyard’ of the White House. The site was discovered during the fall of 2013 by the Excavating Hamline History class. While our original intention was to find a shed structure pictured on an 1886 plat map, we discovered a post-hole and an intact cultural deposit. A 2x1 meter test unit and six shovel tests were conducted on the property that determined site boundaries and the vertical and horizontal distribution of artifacts and features. The excavation units show clear soil changes that define the fluctuating use in landscape at the site. The home originally on this property, the 830 Simpson Avenue house, created an assemblage of 19th and early 20th century artifacts over time. While the assemblage from the site was relatively small, the artifact analysis showed the presence of women in terms of the kitchen refuse associated with women’s roles, the clothing components, and personal items of women and girls. Similarly, the archival analysis helped place women at the site during the time period consistent with our intact assemblage, indicating they were active participants in creating the assemblage. By the 1940’s this site had undergone a variety of changes in occupation and site use as well as construction to the house. Ownership of the home was private until 1916 when it was purchased by Hamline University. Students began residing in the homes all along Simpson Avenue (between Hewitt and Wesley avenue), and eventually these homes were rented to individual families. In 1946, the 830 house was moved to a new location and became 862 Simpson Ave. In place of the 830 house, the White House was moved onto the property. The construction and demolition debris observed in the soil stratigraphy indicates the crucial change from a residential neighborhood to the landscape influenced by university expansion. From 1946 on, the White House has remained in the same location on Hamline campus with remnants of the original Midway neighborhood just below our feet

Archaeology under the Blinding Light of Race

Racism is defined as a modern system of inequity emergent in Atlantic slavery in which “Whiteness” is born and embedded. This essay describes its transformation. The operation of racist Whiteness in current archaeology and related anthropological practices is demonstrated in the denigration and exclusion of Black voices and the denial of racism and its diverse appropriations afforded the White authorial voice. The story of New York’s African Burial Ground offers a case in point

Remembering the Revolution: Monuments and Commemorations of American Revolutionary War Sites in New York

Memorials and monuments at military heritage sites track the ways American society constructs and then reconstructs its understandings of important events. They present enticing material culture for study by archaeologists seeking to analyze the layers of meaning and the social and chronological transformations in the heritage narratives at military sites. With the prominence of recent national discourses surrounding the heritage narratives presented by Civil War Confederate monuments, there is a paramount need for archaeologists to lend their expertise in material culture studies to these dialogues. I also believe it remains important to expand this critical examination of Civil War monuments to other wars. The use of monuments to support specific discourses about the past is not an aberration but an established, consistently used means of heritage discourse. Although elites use memorials to craft heritage narratives in support of their power, ethnic-based organizations have also used memorialization to engage and challenge oppressive national ideologies. This dissertation examines the monuments and signage constructed at five Revolutionary War sites within New York State: Oriskany Battlefield, Fort Stanwix National Monument, Saratoga Battlefield, Newtown Battlefield, and Old Fort Niagara. My dissertation foregrounds the agency of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), Irish, and Polish in asserting their own narratives since thelate 19 th century. My analysis challenges portrayals of heritage as monolithic narratives defined exclusively by elite, white, Anglo-Saxons while suggesting that non-dominant ethnicities only engaged in the construction of heritage within the last few decades. My research demonstrates how heritage narratives are transformed by numerous stakeholders. This research is especially relevant with the current national discourse on the meaning, symbolism, and memory of monuments in public spaces. I conclude that the Authorized Heritage Discourses presented at each site were more influenced by the descendants of those who fought at the site rather than whether the site was managed at the New York State or Federal level. At the same time, I observed a clear trend by ethnic organizations of Irish-Americans, Dutch-Americans, and Polish-Americans and by the various nations of theHaudenosaunee to engage with and sometimes challenge these Authorized Heritage Discourses at these sites

'That once romantic now utterly disheartening (former) colliery town' : the affective politics of heritage, memory, place and regeneration in Mansfield, UK

This article investigates the affective politics of heritage, memory, place and regeneration in Mansfield, UK. Ravaged by workplace closures from the 1980s, Mansfield's local government and cultural partners have supposedly put heritage at the centre of urban regeneration policies. Principal are ambiguous, and forestalled, ambitions to mobilize the industrial past to build urban futures. Yet these heritages, and their attendant memories and histories, are emotionally evocative and highly contested. The affective politics are played out in the material, embodied and atmospheric remains of the industrial past as Mansfield struggles to make sense of its industrial legacies. Drawing on Critical Discourse Analysis, archival research, observant participation and interview data, this article critiques heritage-based regeneration; examines interrelations between local memory, class, place and history; and interprets tensions between competing imaginaries of what Mansfield is, was and should be. Contributing to work on memory and class in post-industrial towns, the article demonstrates that affect and place should be central to our considerations of heritage-based urban regeneration. In the case of Mansfield, an 'emotional regeneration' will be denied until a shared practice of remembering the affective ruptures of the past is enabled

Home Swede Home: The Archaeology of Swedish Cultural Identity at a Western Homestead

In the summer of 2003, the University of Idaho conducted an archaeological field school at the Nora Creek site under the direction of Dr. Mark Warner at a Swedish homestead just east of Troy, Idaho. The field school unearthed a plethora of historical artifacts including metal, glass, ceramic, and faunal items left behind by the inhabitants of the Johanson homestead in Nora, Idaho. Historical documentation indicates that the Johansons immigrated to America from Sweden in 1882 and they arrived in Nora in 1891. The research goal of this thesis is to determine whether and how a signature of Swedish identity may be manifested in the material culture of the Nora Creek site. The glass and ceramic assemblages, as well as the faunal collection, are integrated with historical research to examine this topic. In order to pursue an archaeology of Swedish identity, it is essential to consider the ways in which class, gender, and cultural identity contributed to a Swedish identity in the Nora Creek assemblage versus general homesteading assemblages contemporary to the time frame of the site

Social housing as heritage : case study : Langa hostels : whose values and what significance?

Includes bibliographical references.This study examines the first identification and assignment of heritage values and significance undertaken by the “establishment”, the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) and the City of Cape Town (CCT) in the Township of Langa in the Cape Province a decade ago. In brief, this is the story of Langa migrant labour hostels reviewed for its meaning as heritage to the diverse communities within Langa, compared with an earlier 2001/2 official evaluation by the state-led heritage management institutions. It is within a broader socio-political, cultural and heritage discourse context that this research project explores what the residents of Langa find significant. This is done with particular reference to the migrant labour hostel schemes since the intention was to establish to what extent conservation and heritage management is an appropriate response in an environment of material, economic and social difficulties; and, if so, to what degree the inhabitants of the hostels’ sense of value correspond to that articulated in the “official statement of significance” of 2004. This study questions the validity of nominating migrant labour hostels as “Grade I” national heritage resources

The Craze for Design Thinking: Roots, A Critique, and toward an Alternative

Paper to the Fifth International Conference on Design Principles and Practices, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy, 2-4 February 2011. Please email [email protected] for permission to reproducePlease email [email protected] for permission to reproduce this article. Common Ground Publishing reatians the copyright of this article.Favouring orientation to and the participation of design users in the design process, Design Thinking (DT) has a long lineage. With the Cold War’s end the Internet’s rise and Stanford University turn to teaching DT (2005), this ‘bottom up’, demand-driven conception of design gained new adherents, going on to win mainstream status when advocated in the Harvard Business Review in 2008. While some managers, especially in government, have since adopted DT rather uncritically, it has prompted a schism in design circles – one as grand, perhaps, as that between post-Modernism and Modernism back in the 1970s/1980s. Though DT has reached Latin America and Asia, enthusiasts differ on its meaning. However, critics like Verganti (Italy) and Norman (US) are unanimous that DT has wrongly made consumer contexts, behaviours and needs seem preferable to what McCullagh (UK) describes as ‘other drivers of innovation, including technical progress’. In DT, ‘sustainability’ tends to be taken for granted, and expensive prices are rarely considered. An alternative to DT is briefly outlined, which, it is hoped, can begin to address these defects