The Austenisation of Sensibility & the Darcyfication of Jane Austen: A Reflection.

Review essay examining Jane Austen's place in literary history, and her attitudes to deeply felt emotion, unpleasant aspects of contemporary life, and sexuality. (Non-refereed article

Ritual Theory and Attitudes to Agency in Brazilian Spirit Possession

This is the post-refereed, pre-print version: "The institute employing the author may post the post-refereed, but pre-print version of that article free of charge on its website. The post-refereed, pre-print version means the version which contains all adaptations made after peer reviewing (upon acceptance). The publisher’s lay-out must not be used." The post-print version (as published) is available on my personal website: http://stevenengler.ca/?page_id=590This article works with theory of ritual in order to begin addressing a series of questions raised by Brazilian spirit possession rituals (in Kardecism and Umbanda). Four contributions to theory of ritual highlight relevant conceptual issues: Humphrey and Laidlaw on non-intentionality; Bloch on deference; Houseman and Severi on social relations; and Kapferer on virtuality. Strawson’s philosophical distinction between objective and reactive attitudes toward intentionality is used to make a case (i) that certain formal aspects of ritual (indexicals) serve to (ii) mark culturally variable attitudes to agency within rituals, which are related to, but fundamentally distinct from, non-ritual attitudes to agency

ICANN : guilty as charged

Discusses the role of ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), a private not-for-profit California corporation created to manage the Internet domain name system and take the regulatory action that the US Department of Commerce (DoC) was unable or unwilling to handle directly. Considers ICANN's legal status and policy-making activities. Explores the criticisms that have been levelled at ICANN, relating to: (1) the DoC's relationship with ICANN; (2) the violation of competition laws; and (3) the effect of ICANN's actions in Europe

Citation Analysis: A Comparison of Google Scholar, Scopus, and Web of Science

When faculty members are evaluated, they are judged in part by the impact and quality of their scholarly publications. While all academic institutions look to publication counts and venues as well as the subjective opinions of peers, many hiring, tenure, and promotion committees also rely on citation analysis to obtain a more objective assessment of an author’s work. Consequently, faculty members try to identify as many citations to their published works as possible to provide a comprehensive assessment of their publication impact on the scholarly and professional communities. The Institute for Scientific Information’s (ISI) citation databases, which are widely used as a starting point if not the only source for locating citations, have several limitations that may leave gaps in the coverage of citations to an author’s work. This paper presents a case study comparing citations found in Scopus and Google Scholar with those found in Web of Science (the portal used to search the three ISI citation databases) for items published by two Library and Information Science full-time faculty members. In addition, the paper presents a brief overview of a prototype system called CiteSearch, which analyzes combined data from multiple citation databases to produce citation-based quality evaluation measures

A bully in the playground : examining the role of neoliberal economic globalisation in children’s struggle to become ‘fully human’

This article begins by exploring the Western historical progression of the conceptual place of children along a Property-Welfare-Rights continuum. It applies Baxi’s “logics of exclusion and inclusion” to the complex dynamic of children’s advancement in becoming ‘fully human’ through their achievement of internationally recognised human rights. It critically considers the comprehensive vulnerability of children based both on their evolving levels of development and on the multifaceted challenges of the application and enforcement of their rights. The ideological and practical realities influencing this evolution exist in an increasingly globalised world in which international economic dynamics play a particularly influential role. The character and substance of these are explored. This follows with an examination of the influence of these dynamics on both the environment in which the struggle for children’s rights to be recognised takes place, and on the ideological concepts of these rights themselves. It is proposed that the dominant form of globalisation, NEG, perpetuates ideological exclusionary criteria which thwart children’s achievement of becoming “fully human”. This is most evident in the neoliberal views on the paramount importance of the individual, and on the limited role for the state. It is the NEG perception of the child, in locating her/him within an individualistic framework and dismissing the wider societal context, which justifies at best a welfare-entitlement agenda and denies children rights. Further, this results in a justification of the effects of poverty, in particular for children of the South. This exclusion of children from bearing rights is achieved globally through NEG systems and processes which handicap the autonomy of states. The NEG maintains this exclusion of children through its deemed legitimate and commonsensical hegemony. Through these mechanisms, NEG bullies states into advancing a new form of colonialism that discriminates against children. The related way in which human rights discourse has itself been influenced by NEG ideology is also explored. The article concludes with the proposal that the effective recognition of children’s rights necessitates an understanding of the exclusionary criteria imposed by NEG. A fundamental modification of the terms and mechanisms within which NEG functions is essential to compensate for children’s unique and disproportionate vulnerabilities

Scottish academic publications implementing an effective networked service (SAPIENS) project

This article describes the aims and continuing progress of the Scottish Academic Periodicals Implementing an Effective Networked Service (SAPIENS) project which has been running at the University of Strathclyde's Centre for Digital Library Research since September 2001. Initially funded for two years, the project has been extended until October 2004. The rationale behind SAPIENS is the concern that small Scottish publishers, operating on limited budgets, are in danger of finding themselves marginalised in the modern information environment. The project's primary objectives are to explore the viability of, and launch, an electronic publishing service to assist small-scale Scottish publishers of academic and cultural periodicals to publish online. It has achieved these aims by implementing a demonstration service which is gradually moving into an operational mode, delivering current journals