James Mill's 'History of British India' in its intellectual context

This thesis argues that James Mill's History of British India is, on the one hand, intellectually linked to the Scottish Enlightenment, while, on the other hand, moves beyond that intellectual tradition in the post-French Revolution age. This thesis makes three central claims. First, it argues that in reacting to Montesqueiu's idea of oriental society, the contributors to the Scottish Enlightenment used ideas of moral philosophy, philosophical history and political economy in order to create an image of a wealthy Asia whose societies possessed barbarous social manners. Some new writings about Asian societies that were published in the 1790s adopted Montesquieu' s views of oriental societies, and started to consider the history of manners and of political institutions as the true criteria of the state of civilisation. These works criticised some Asian social manners, such as female slavery, and questioned previous assumptions about the high civilisation of Indian and Chinese societies. This thesis argues that Mill's History, following William Robertson's History of America, was based on a study of the historical mind to interpret the texts published in the 1790s and the early nineteenth century. Second, this thesis argues that Mill adopted Francis Jeffrey's idea of semi-barbarism in his study of India. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, William Alexander and Francis J effrey started to think of history in the context of a tri -stadia! theory, which was more idealist and less materialist than the earlier four-stages theory. Mill tried to develop a holistic view of Asian society. In so doing, he came to criticise the British government's mistaken mercantilist view of government, which he regarded as unsuitable for the conditions of Indian society. Following Adam Smith's moral philosophy, and inspired by the socio-economic progress of North America, Mill suggested that the primary goals for the British government in India should be to improve its agriculture and to secure social freedom. This thesis also concludes that the discussions about Chinese society played an important part in shaping Mill's view of the concept of semi-barbarism. The theory of semi-barbarism helped Mill to reject the cultural ideology of Hindu superiority over Muslim societies. Lastly, this thesis argues that Mill's History was influenced by and sought to accommodate Benthamite Utilitarianism. Mill believed the supposed semi-barbarous and problematic native of Indian society could be reformed without following the steps taken by European history or institutions. He prescribed a powerful state for India in order to remove the mercantilist view of government, and to execute administrative and judicial reforms. This thesis concludes that, while Scottish philosophical history helped Mill to create a critique of the British government's attempts to govern India as a commercial society, Benthamite Utilitarianism taught Mill to see history from a teleological viewpoint

Creation, Resistance, and Refacement: Postfuturist Storytelling, Cultural Flows, and the Remix

Constitutive of my dissertation is an exploration of contemporary literature and culture. Vital to my research is the notion and practice of the remix. Originating in music, it is perceived and deployed as a hybrid expressive mode combining textual, audio, and visual components. The text of the dissertation, accompanying photographs, and supplementary video files demonstrate this principal aspect. Focusing on the fusion of quest narratives and social activism, the dissertation looks at critical and creative vernaculars as forms of peaceful/peaceable resistance against multiple oppression. Reflecting some of the permeating modernist and postmodernist concerns, it emphasizes an understanding of postfuturist storytelling as cultural exchange in the intersection of the time axes. Reading the works of Stewart Home, Jeff Noon, and Kathy Acker, alongside critical insights of Terry Eagleton, Richard Rorty, Fredric Jameson, and McKenzie Wark, contextualizes contemporary idiosyncrasies historically, thereby rendering tradition remixable, rather than radically abandoning it. The remix investigates alternating cycles of noise and silence in the communication channel as a basis for the disambiguation of the misconception about the totality of discourse. The approach delineates vision of refacement: rebirth through subtonic solidarity of selfless, yet reindividualized, fellow humans engaged in enduring the hindrances to patient, persistent creation of a free culture based on love and trust

Social Welfare: Care Planning And The Politics Of Trust

This thesis describes a study of power and power relations, which is developed through an exploration of the literature and professional discourse in an abductive research strategy The focus is provided by services for people with learning disabilities within one English County and the relationships that are produced within the processes that surround care planning. The study sets out to describe and to provide evidence for the proposition that welfare professionals and the organisations in which they are embedded set out to manufacture trust. This trust has a particular quality as it is impersonal and therefore does not require knowledge of any individual involved. At the same time this trust serves as a commodity within the competitive environment of welfare and it is contested - hence the politics of trust. The study defines trust as the reduction of complexity and the management of expectations. It uses a framework developed from the work of Michel Foucault and his followers’ relating to the relationship between power and discourse and the concept of governmentality. The study describes the local relations of power within which both organisations and the people to whom they provide services become fixed. At the same time it links a developing discourse of citizenship concerning people with learning disabilities with a discourse of trust that is articulated by professionals within organisations. However, organisations tend to promote sets of relationships between the individual and the community, which produce differing forms of citizenship dependent upon the discursive structure of the organisation. The existence of differing discursive structures between organisations is linked with Foucault’s description of the ‘orders of discourse’ that is then used to produce an organisational typology of three broad forms into which the range of organisations involved in the study are be placed. These are described as New Wave, Pragmatists and the Old Radicals and as each provides a different set of outcomes for service users they actively challenge the basis of the trust claimed by the other with the first category, New Wave, proving hegemonic. This implies that an understanding of the discursive structure of an organisation is essential to the understanding of power relations within a particular field of operations such as social welfare

A Prodigy of Universal Genius: Robert Leslie Ellis, 1817-1859

Places Ellis at the heart of early-Victorian Cambridge with in-depth descriptions on his scientific work and tragic life Provides a unique glimpse into Victorian intellectual culture, based on previously unpublished archival materials This open access book brings together for the first time all aspects of the tragic life and fascinating work of the polymath Robert Leslie Ellis (1817–1859), placing him at the heart of early-Victorian intellectual culture. Written by a diverse team of experts, the chapters in the book’s first part contain in-depth examinations of, among other things, Ellis’s family, education, Bacon scholarship and mathematical contributions. The second part consists of annotated transcriptions of a selection of Ellis’s diaries and correspondence. Taken together, A Prodigy of Universal Genius: Robert Leslie Ellis, 1817–1859 is a rich resource for historians of science, historians of mathematics and Victorian scholars alike. Robert Leslie Ellis was one of the most intriguing and wide-ranging intellectual figures of early Victorian Britain, his contributions ranging from advanced mathematical analysis to profound commentaries on philosophy and classics and a decisive role in the orientation of mid-nineteenth century scholarship. This very welcome collection offers both new and authoritative commentaries on the work, setting it in the context of the mathematical, philosophical and cultural milieux of the period, together with fascinating passages from the wealth of unpublished papers Ellis composed during his brief and brilliant career. - Simon Schaffer, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridg

Indigenous Emotional Economies In Alaska: Surviving Youth In The Village

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2008According to the Status of Alaska Natives Report 2004 produced by the Institute of Social and Economic Research, University of Alaska Anchorage, Native youth in rural Alaska experience significant mental health disparity. Suicide rates for Alaska Native youth are the highest in the nation, and substance abuse, social misconduct and teenage pregnancy rates are also much higher among the rural, indigenous population in Alaska. These disparate rates have caused many to ask; what is going on with the youth in the villages today? This dissertation reports on research conducted to help answer that question, and identify local intervention strategies for youth growing up today in the villages. The research for this dissertation was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (1R34MH073601-01), and supported by the University of Alaska Fairbanks at the Center for Alaska Native Health Research, Institute of Arctic Biology. The study used a community-based participatory research approach and ethnographic methods to explore the affective lives of youth in Athabascan villages in Alaska. This dissertation is a contemporary ethnography of life in "the vill" from a youth perspective. Findings from the research demonstrate a model of Athabascan mental health based on the concept of an indigenous emotional economy. Athabascan survival has always required both technical skills to provide for the material necessities of life and emotional skills to support social life. In that sense the economy has also always been an emotional economy. As the balance between the need for technical and emotional survival skills shifted, the lives of young people have become increasingly focused on their relationships in the village. The contemporary social problems that youth experience growing up in the village reflect the changed and changing nature of their emotional decision-making in the context of the relationships that contribute most directly to their social status and survival. In an emotional economy individuals must adapt strategies for surviving feelings. This study provides information that could be used to create or tailor intervention strategies in the rural villages to the local models of emotion, behavior and mental health

Towards a knowledge sharing framework based on student questions : the case for a dynamic FAQ environment

Includes bibliographical references.This study investigates the impact of anonymous computer mediated interaction on question-driven knowledge acquisition among students. A growing concern for educational institutions in general and educators in particular has been to augment what students are formally taught and what they informally learn from one another. Anecdotal evidence suggests that students consult one another informally. However, informal consultations suffer from three limitations: a) they are limited to clusters of friends; b) shared information is not retained; c) educators have no access to informal knowledge. My argument is that knowledge shared informally among students is a potential knowledge resource for both students and educators. As a student resource, it allows students to reconstruct their own understanding as they share their knowledge with each other. As an educators' resource, it serves as a diagnostic tool about students' knowledge levels hence identifying areas of misunderstanding or misconceptions

A Prodigy of Universal Genius: Robert Leslie Ellis, 1817-1859

Places Ellis at the heart of early-Victorian Cambridge with in-depth descriptions on his scientific work and tragic life Provides a unique glimpse into Victorian intellectual culture, based on previously unpublished archival materials This open access book brings together for the first time all aspects of the tragic life and fascinating work of the polymath Robert Leslie Ellis (1817–1859), placing him at the heart of early-Victorian intellectual culture. Written by a diverse team of experts, the chapters in the book’s first part contain in-depth examinations of, among other things, Ellis’s family, education, Bacon scholarship and mathematical contributions. The second part consists of annotated transcriptions of a selection of Ellis’s diaries and correspondence. Taken together, A Prodigy of Universal Genius: Robert Leslie Ellis, 1817–1859 is a rich resource for historians of science, historians of mathematics and Victorian scholars alike. Robert Leslie Ellis was one of the most intriguing and wide-ranging intellectual figures of early Victorian Britain, his contributions ranging from advanced mathematical analysis to profound commentaries on philosophy and classics and a decisive role in the orientation of mid-nineteenth century scholarship. This very welcome collection offers both new and authoritative commentaries on the work, setting it in the context of the mathematical, philosophical and cultural milieux of the period, together with fascinating passages from the wealth of unpublished papers Ellis composed during his brief and brilliant career. - Simon Schaffer, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridg

Embedding learner independence in architecture education: reconsidering design studio pedagogy.

The landscape of UK Higher Education has witnessed significant change in recent years, characterised by rapidly increasing numbers, widening participation, and a diminished per capita resource base. Developmental and enhancement agenda have placed greater emphasis on skills for lifelong learning, and the independent learner has thus become a prominent theme. In architecture education these factors are imposing pressures on the traditional studio-based teaching model, one that forms a universal cornerstone of architecture schools. Coincidentally, the same period has seen this model, endorsed by Schon in the 1980s, increasingly challenged. It is argued that the confluence of these factors, presents an opportunity to develop studio-based pedagogy around the notion of the independent learner, renewing studio's relevance and currency. The aim of this thesis was developed from a literature review that was divided into four sections. The first summarised developments within UK higher education, including research into the First Year Experience, and placed architecture education within this context. The second examined the origins of contemporary studio-based teaching, whilst the third discussed the theoretical roots of its pedagogy. The final chapter critiqued teaching and learning practices through comparison with the theoretical intent, revealing a number of contradictory and counter-productive aspects. From this, the position that the development of the truly independent learner in the discipline of architecture requires the formulation of new inclusive pedagogic strategies that explicitly accommodate the individual in the studio-based learning process, and address identified shortcomings in existing studio-based teaching practices, was developed. The methodology adopted an ethnographic approach that gathered data through a longitudinal study of student perceptions, together with interviews with selected academics. Analysis of the findings, whilst replicating many phenomena raised by the literature, also revealed in detail a range of perceptions of learning, and wider student life, giving insight into key challenges. In considering these against the agendum of creating the independent learner, the importance of the peer group as a vehicle for studio-based learning and pastoral support, emerged strongly. A number of recommendations were thus made aimed at reconstructing the role of the tutor in the development of future strategies, as well as harnessing the unrealised potential of the peer group as an agent in embedding independent learning in design studio. The originality of this thesis resides in the fact that it constitutes a holistic study of teaching and learning practices in first year design studio. This is viewed against the background of rapid change in UK Higher Education. Pivotal to the study was the undertaking of a longitudinal survey of student perceptions, presenting a vitally different perspective from, say, that of Schon. From a holistic standpoint, the study creates the theoretical and evidential basis for the future development of key pedagogic strategies relating to design studio. This lays the foundation for the development of learning practices that foster learner independence within the context of design studio

Casco Bay Weekly : 29 October 1998

https://digitalcommons.portlandlibrary.com/cbw_1998/1045/thumbnail.jp

Men's health and illness : the relationship between masculinities and health

This thesis presents men’s discussions and experiences of health and illness and its relation to, and implications for, the practices of masculinity amongst a diversity of men. Fifty five men participated in fourteen semi-structured focus group interviews. Diversity in men’s experiences of health and illness and in their constructions of masculinity was sought within the sample by age (range 15-72 years), occupational status, socio-economic background and current health status. Groups of men were recruited who had had ‘everyday’ or unremarkable experiences of masculinity and health and groups of men with health experiences that could have prompted reflection on masculinity and health. This included groups with men who had prostate cancer, coronary heart disease, mental health problems, and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME). All of the men that participated in the study lived in central Scotland (Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Lanarkshire and Perthshire) and just one group was conducted with men of Asian origin, which reflects the limited ethnic diversity in this part of Britain. The first data chapter examines participants’ descriptions of their masculinity and their health-related beliefs and behaviours. The data capture both the experiences of men who felt pressured to engage in behaviours that may be harmful to their health in order to appear masculine and the accounts of those who regarded themselves as freer to embrace salutogenic health practices as they perceived there to be fewer consequences for their masculinities. These considerations are then followed by an examination of how participants re-negotiated male identity in the light of illness. The final data chapter presents participants’ discussions and experiences of help seeking and its relation to the practice of masculinity. The data suggests a widespread endorsement of a ‘hegemonic’ view that men ‘should’ be reluctant to seek help, particularly amongst younger men