48 research outputs found

    From Hybridity to Singularity: The Distillation of a Unique Buddhist Identity on the Borderlands of South and Southeast Asia

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    The thesis is an exploration of identity on the borderlands between South and Southeast Asia. Specifically, it establishes the nature of the cultural distinctness of one of the largest ethnic groups in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) in Bangladesh. The thesis presents the historical processes behind the hybridity of this ethnic group and how it eventually came to be under one self-identifying label - the Marma. The study employs various approaches to understanding the creation and reproduction of identity. From the maintenance of the boundaries of culture to the processes at work within culture through concepts such as creolization, syncretism, and entanglement. These latter theories point towards a fluid process of reconfiguring and recasting of structure or creating order from chaos, in response to changes in the environment. The research also explores other essentially different approaches that have similar conceptual outcomes, such as the theories that stress that traditional practice and ethnic identity are invented afresh according to present historical contexts and in response to both internal and/or external pressures. These different approaches help to piece together the various components of Marma cultural identity. The ethnographic data is presented in three parts with each section drawing upon the relevant theories to examine the field data on the Marma group. The thesis contributes a detailed monograph on the study of borderland cultures and demonstrates the value of applying several lenses to the study of identity in complex areas of the world

    Radical Belonging: School as Communion of Peoples, Place, and Power

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    In wondering “How are decolonizing, place/land-based, and community-grown learning places created and sustained as alternatives to dominant settler-colonial systems, and what stories would they share about their creation and existence?”, I formed relationships with two alternative, autonomous, decolonizing schools through a teacher-guide at each school who served as guides for me to enter their spaces with invitation. In developing these relationships over 2-3 years and spending 2-3 weeks alongside each of them at their school sites, I was able to sustain natural and deep conversation with my teacher-guides, who then served as co-storyers of this research to collectively consider research questions through the lens of their stories and lived realities in their schools. This study was carried out through narrative storywork, Indigenous and culturally responsive methodologies, and critical autoethnography, as my experience of entering these school communities and forming these relationships over time became a supporting contribution to the data. Data is regarded as all the stories, conversations, reflections, observations, intuited moments, and elements of portraiture that were gathered through this process of sustained relationship with my co-storyers and my dedicated time in being within and experiencing each school space. I identified four major themes as emergent from the data: (1) a necessary process, (2) school as communion, (3) a radical existence, and (4) belonging. Dialogue with my co-storyers about the emergent themes suggests that this work of creating decolonizing, community-grown, place-specific alternatives to settler-state educational systems is necessary across many communities; yet, entering this work requires a necessary process of individual and collective work to align to place-appropriate, decolonized, and Indigenous principals of place, community, culture, and work. Data also suggests that creating such schools is radical yet sustainable and that these schools embody a paradigmatic shift from colonizing, individualistic systems toward collective, communal systems aligned with Indigenous and anti-colonial communities. Furthermore, the data and dialogue suggest that within this work of growing such place-specific communal schools, members of the community are often afforded a greater sense of belonging and collective ownership over their educational experience. Both schools in the study also demonstrated a positive impact on the place and land on which their school was situated. Therefore, this study implicates that there is value in seeking and growing schools outside of the dominant system and that communities who seek to grow such place and person-specific schools can experience great benefit for both human and more-than-human members of the community. Keywords: alternative-autonomous school, communal school, school as communion, decolonizing, anti-colonial, Indigenous-aligned, Indigenous methodology, decolonizing communities, portraiture, critical autoethnography, co-storying research, narrative storywork, belonging, culturally responsive methodologies, place-based, land-based, resisting settler-state, sustainable systems thinking, Hālau KĆ« Māna, Angeles Workshop School, revolutionary schools, diverse communities, students of colo

    Reversible Computation: Extending Horizons of Computing

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    This open access State-of-the-Art Survey presents the main recent scientific outcomes in the area of reversible computation, focusing on those that have emerged during COST Action IC1405 "Reversible Computation - Extending Horizons of Computing", a European research network that operated from May 2015 to April 2019. Reversible computation is a new paradigm that extends the traditional forwards-only mode of computation with the ability to execute in reverse, so that computation can run backwards as easily and naturally as forwards. It aims to deliver novel computing devices and software, and to enhance existing systems by equipping them with reversibility. There are many potential applications of reversible computation, including languages and software tools for reliable and recovery-oriented distributed systems and revolutionary reversible logic gates and circuits, but they can only be realized and have lasting effect if conceptual and firm theoretical foundations are established first

    Towards Middleware for Fault-tolerance in Distributed Real-time and Embedded Systems

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    Abstract. Distributed real-time and embedded (DRE) systems often require support for multiple simultaneous quality of service (QoS) properties, such as real-timeliness and fault tolerance, that operate within resource constrained environments. These resource constraints motivate the need for a lightweight middleware infrastructure, while the need for simultaneous QoS properties require the middleware to provide fault tolerance capabilities that respect time-critical needs of DRE systems. Conventional middleware solutions, such as Fault-tolerant CORBA (FT-CORBA) and Continuous Availability API for J2EE, have limited utility for DRE systems because they are heavyweight (e.g., the complexity of their feature-rich fault tolerance capabilities consumes excessive runtime resources), yet incomplete (e.g., they lack mechanisms that enable fault tolerance while maintaining real-time predictability). This paper provides three contributions to the development and standardization of lightweight real-time and fault-tolerant middleware for DRE systems. First, we discuss the challenges in realizing real-time faulttolerant solutions for DRE systems using contemporary middleware. Second, we describe recent progress towards standardizing a CORBA lightweight fault-tolerance specification for DRE systems. Third, we present the architecture of FLARe, which is a prototype based on the OMG real-time fault-tolerant CORBA middleware standardization efforts that is lightweight (e.g., leverages only those server-and client-side mechanisms required for real-time systems) and predictable (e.g., provides fault-tolerant mechanisms that respect time-critical performance needs of DRE systems)
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