6,530 research outputs found
âUn-boardingâ the window trom faca mi an Ă ird an Iar/ through which I saw the West: Excavating the practices of Anne Campbell, Marnie Keltie, Moira MacLean, Mary Morrison and Ishbel Murray
This thesis provides a close examination of artistsâ Anne Campbell, Marnie Keltie, Moira MacLean, Mary Morrison and Ishbel Murrayâs work and practices from 2000-2022. Prior to this study, the artists in question were unresearched in academia. The paperâs urge to highlight the artistsâ practice derives from their timely engagement with decolonisation. To best understand the decolonising processes in the artistsâ work, the paper proposes looking at them through a metaphorical lens: comparing the way the artists uncover stories from history to âun-boardingâ Sorley MacLeanâs boarded house gazing West (as described in MacLeanâs poem Hallaig from 1954). Then, the decolonising strategies deployed by each artist are unpacked through a postcolonial, loosely Bhabhanian, lens. The fruitful results of this application show the benefit of applying postcolonial theory to (disputedly) internal colonies and fringe nations.
The decolonising themes dealt with include discussions of (re)writing history, establishing the effects of Colonial Alienation, utilising mapping to discuss land issues in relation to Imperial intervention, reasserting the credibility of indigenous methods (both scientific and historical) and regaining indigenous autonomy. This paper looks at how the âun-boardingâ artists deconstruct representations of the Gael, representations which had roots in art made amidst the greatest Imperial intervention in the GĂ idhealtachd â the Clearances of the 1800s. Critically, the paper also looks at how the artists went on to make radically hybrid, new representations of the GĂ idhealtachd and its inhabitants - employing progressive temporal and spatial tools to do so
DEVELOPING COMPETENCE FOR INNOVATION IN KNOWLEDGE PRACTICE: an exploration of the sustainability science-policy interface
This thesis is motivated by institutional claims for a ânew type of knowledgeâ in the sustainability science-policy interface. It thus explores the thinking and practice of experts in the field about professional competencies necessary to induce required innovations in their knowledge practice.
The thesis proposes a novel conceptual framework, synthesising (1) five key features informing claimed innovations in knowledge practice of science-policy sustainability âboundary organisationsâ, (2) a set of ten differentiating individual competencies deemed critical to induce such type of innovations and (3) required approaches to effective development of such competencies. In doing so, this thesis suggests an operative framework to engage with a competence-based approach in response to the need for innovations in knowledge practice within boundary organisations.
Under the conceptual framework above, the thesis engages in an empirical work exploring the thinking and praxis of experts in the field, around three key questions: (1) How do practitioners in the field perceive the need for and the pertinence of such type of innovations, (2) How do they relate to the notion of individual competence and the need for different types of competencies to induce innovations in their own knowledge practice and (3) How can professionals working in the science-policy interface most effectively learn and develop such new set of competences, given their specific organisational / institutional contexts?
Methodologically, this thesis engaged a combined set of empirical research instruments, mostly including semi-structured interviews with professionals operating in the sustainability sciencepolicy interface, three focus-groups in The Netherlands, Portugal and the UK, with actors operating within the remit of sustainability boundary organizations, and participatory observation within the European Environment Agency.
Outcomes of this research indicate that, while the need for a new type of knowledge is clearly acknowledged by practitioners in âboundary organisationsâ, notions associated with required innovations in knowledge practice â such as co-creation, systems thinking, transdisciplinarity, reflexivity and action-orientated knowledge â are still subject to ambiguity and controversy within the institutional context they operate. As practitioners struggle to engage the notion of individual competence in this debate, the type of competencies deemed critical to induce required innovations in their knowledge practice resonates with their own experience. Experts in boundary organisations identify though a lack of institutional frameworks to support their efforts to generate innovations in knowledge practice. While this research synthetises and presents existing examples of learning programmes and approaches to help develop such type of competencies, practitioners in the field manifest scepticism on the extent to which such learning approaches are feasible in their given institutional settings
Information actors beyond modernity and coloniality in times of climate change:A comparative design ethnography on the making of monitors for sustainable futures in Curaçao and Amsterdam, between 2019-2022
In his dissertation, Mr. Goilo developed a cutting-edge theoretical framework for an Anthropology of Information. This study compares information in the context of modernity in Amsterdam and coloniality in Curaçao through the making process of monitors and develops five ways to understand how information can act towards sustainable futures. The research also discusses how the two contexts, that is modernity and coloniality, have been in informational symbiosis for centuries which is producing negative informational side effects within the age of the Anthropocene. By exploring the modernity-coloniality symbiosis of information, the author explains how scholars, policymakers, and data-analysts can act through historical and structural roots of contemporary global inequities related to the production and distribution of information. Ultimately, the five theses propose conditions towards the collective production of knowledge towards a more sustainable planet
Planetary Hinterlands:Extraction, Abandonment and Care
This open access book considers the concept of the hinterland as a crucial tool for understanding the global and planetary present as a time defined by the lasting legacies of colonialism, increasing labor precarity under late capitalist regimes, and looming climate disasters. Traditionally seen to serve a (colonial) port or market town, the hinterland here becomes a lens to attend to the times and spaces shaped and experienced across the received categories of the urban, rural, wilderness or nature. In straddling these categories, the concept of the hinterland foregrounds the human and more-than-human lively processes and forms of care that go on even in sites defined by capitalist extraction and political abandonment. Bringing together scholars from the humanities and social sciences, the book rethinks hinterland materialities, affectivities, and ecologies across places and cultural imaginations, Global North and South, urban and rural, and land and water
Reading Greek and Hellenistic-Roman Spolia:Objects, Appropriation and Cultural Change
Plundering and taking home precious objects from a defeated enemy was a widespread activity in the Greek and Hellenistic-Roman world. In this volume literary critics, historians and archaeologists join forces in investigating this phenomenon in terms of appropriation and cultural change. In-depth interpretations of famous ancient spoliations, like that of the Greeks after Plataea or the Romans after the capture of Jerusalem, reveal a fascinating paradox: while the material record shows an eager incorporation of new objects, the texts display abhorrence of the negative effects they were thought to bring along. As this volume demonstrates, both reactions testify to the crucial innovative impact objects from abroad may have
Acoustic metamaterials for sound absorption and insulation in buildings
© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisherâs website: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2024.111250Despite the emergence of acoustic metamaterials with superior sound absorption and transmission loss, their adoption for building sound insulation has been limited. Sound insulation design in buildings is still informed by the acoustic performance of conventional materials, where the mass law contradicts light weighting when it comes to acoustic design. In any case buildings close to noisy environments such as motorways, railway lines and airports still suffer from significant low frequency noise pollution. Although the limited working bandwidth of acoustic metamaterials is a major issue limiting its application, combining meta-units that interact at various frequencies alongside multi-layer conventional solutions can deliver superior sound insulation in buildings. The review put forwards acoustic metamaterials, specifically emphasising superior sound absorption and transmission/insertion loss as critical properties for effective building sound insulation. The paper reveals a variety of acoustic metamaterials that can be adopted to compliment conventional sound insulation approaches for acoustically efficient building design. The performance of these metamaterials is then explained through their characteristic negative mass density, bulk modulus or repeating or locally resonating microstructure. The review is also extended to air transparent acoustic metamaterials that can be used for sound insulation of building ventilation. Lastly the prospects and challenges regarding the adoption of acoustic metamaterials in building insulation are also discussed. Overall, tuneable, and multifunctional acoustic metamaterials when thoughtfully integrated to building sound insulation can lead to significant acoustic comfort, space-saving and light-weighting.Published versio
Climate Change and Critical Agrarian Studies
Climate change is perhaps the greatest threat to humanity today and plays out as a cruel engine of myriad forms of injustice, violence and destruction. The effects of climate change from human-made emissions of greenhouse gases are devastating and accelerating; yet are uncertain and uneven both in terms of geography and socio-economic impacts. Emerging from the dynamics of capitalism since the industrial revolution â as well as industrialisation under state-led socialism â the consequences of climate change are especially profound for the countryside and its inhabitants. The book interrogates the narratives and strategies that frame climate change and examines the institutionalised responses in agrarian settings, highlighting what exclusions and inclusions result. It explores how different people â in relation to class and other co-constituted axes of social difference such as gender, race, ethnicity, age and occupation â are affected by climate change, as well as the climate adaptation and mitigation responses being implemented in rural areas. The book in turn explores how climate change â and the responses to it - affect processes of social differentiation, trajectories of accumulation and in turn agrarian politics. Finally, the book examines what strategies are required to confront climate change, and the underlying political-economic dynamics that cause it, reflecting on what this means for agrarian struggles across the world. The 26 chapters in this volume explore how the relationship between capitalism and climate change plays out in the rural world and, in particular, the way agrarian struggles connect with the huge challenge of climate change. Through a huge variety of case studies alongside more conceptual chapters, the book makes the often-missing connection between climate change and critical agrarian studies. The book argues that making the connection between climate and agrarian justice is crucial
More-than-words: Reconceptualising Two-year-old Childrenâs Onto-epistemologies Through Improvisation and the Temporal Arts
This thesis project takes place at a time of increasing focus upon two-year-old children and the words they speak. On the one hand there is a mounting pressure, driven by the school readiness agenda, to make children talk as early as possible. On the other hand, there is an increased interest in understanding childrenâs communication in order to create effective pedagogies. More-than-words (MTW) examines an improvised art-education practice that combines heterogenous elements: sound, movement and materials (such as silk, string, light) to create encounters for young children, educators and practitioners from diverse backgrounds. During these encounters, adults adopt a practice of stripping back their words in order to tune into the polyphonic ways that children are becoming-with the world.
For this research-creation, two MTW sessions for two-year-old children and their carers took place in a specially created installation. These sessions were filmed on a 360Ë camera, nursery school iPad and on a specially made child-friendly Toddler-cam (Tcam) that rolled around in the installation-event with the children. Through using the frameless technology of 360Ë film, I hoped to make tangible the relation and movement of an emergent and improvised happening and the way in which young children operate fluidly through multiple modes.
Travelling with posthuman, Deleuzio-Guattarian and feminist vital material philosophy, I wander and wonder speculatively through practice, memory, and film data as a bag lady, a Haraway-ian writer/artist/researcher-creator who resists the story of the wordless child as lacking and tragic; the story that positions the word as heroic. Instead, through returning to the uncertainty of improvisation, I attempt to tune into the savage, untamed and wild music of young childrenâs animistic onto-epistemologies
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