Georges Perec’s experimental fieldwork; Perecquian fieldwork

© 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis GroupThis paper traces key themes in contemporary experimental fieldwork – explorations of ordinary places by artists, writers, activists, enthusiasts, students and researchers – to the works of Georges Perec. Preoccupations of this work – including playfulness, attention to the ordinary, and writing as a fieldwork practice – are all anticipated and elaborated in Perec’s oeuvre, where they converge around an ‘essayistic’ approach. Exhibiting these traits, some contemporary fieldwork is more convincingly Perecquian than psychogeographical or Situationist, despite the tendency to identify it with the latter. Through Perec, it is therefore possible to bring contemporary experimental fieldwork into focus, identifying a coherence and sense of project within it, while speaking to the question of what it means and could mean to conduct fieldwork experimentally. Particular attention is paid in this paper to Perec’s most accomplished and sustained field texts, both of which have been translated into English: An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris (2010, from 1975 original in French) and Species of Spaces (1999/1974)

'It's just superstition I suppose ... I've always done something on game day': The construction of everyday life on a university basketball team

Research in sport has tended to focus on ‘spectacular’ or ‘extra-ordinary’ experiences, at the expense of discussing how particular phenomena are embedded in everyday life. Drawing on ethnographic research with a university basketball team in the North of England, this article considers the meanings that amateur players attach to basketball and how such meanings go beyond their participation in competitive games. Analysis reveals the rhythms and rituals which are hugely important in determining the players’ sense of self. It also highlights the carnivalesque celebrations which allow the players to temporarily disrupt the status quo and experiment with alternative identities. In conclusion, it is argued that the meaning of sport should not be seen as rigid, determining and predictable, but rather a creative experience that is largely dependent on the subjective appropriation of time and place

The concept of 'the everyday': ephemeral politics and the abundance of life

Against the background of a continuing interest in the everyday in international relations, this article asks what kind of analytics upon and within the world mobilises one through the concept of the everyday and what consequences this may have for thinking about politics. In particular, it explores a conception of the the everyday that foregrounds the abundance of human life and ephemeral temporalities. The abundance of life invites a densification of politics combined with an emphasis on displacing levels or scales by associative horizontal relations. The ephemeral introduces a conception of temporality that foregrounds the political significance of fleeting practices and the emergent nature of life. When applied to politics, this conception of the everyday performs politics as emergent, as possibilities that are not already defined by fixing what politics can possibly be. The order of politics is then understood as an immanently precarious succession of situations and practices in which lived political lives remain inherently aleatory, momentary and emergent rather than as an order of mastering the political. The concept of the everyday, thus draws attention to the immanent elusiveness and fragility of politics as it loses its ground, its referent

Non-media-centric media studies: A Cross-generational conversation

On the face of it, the notion of non-media-centric media studies appears to be a contradiction in terms. Surely those who are working in media studies will put media at the centre of their investigations and explanations of social life? In the following conversation, three advocates of a non-media-centric approach discuss their ways into the field of media studies at different points in its development, and together they explore their overlapping empirical research interests as well as their theoretical, methodological and pedagogical concerns. Topics that feature in this exchange include the linked mobilities of information, people and commodities, the articulation of material and virtual geographies, and the meaningfulness of everyday, embodied practices. Out of the dialogue emerges a renewed call for media studies that acknowledge the particularities of media, but which are about more than simply studying media and which seek to recover the field’s early spirit of interdisciplinary adventure

Ekologiczne aspekty przecinania materiałów wysokociśnieniową strugą wodno-ścierną

Traditional method of production has a negative impact on the environment by cutting and erosion products (chips and microchips), the used coolant (oils and emulsions, enriched aggressive chemicals) and high energy consumption. Modern systems for mechanical processing should be minimal this impact. This paper presented a study of advanced machining – Abrasive Water Jet (AWJ) technology in environmental aspects. Unlike traditional machining (grinding, milling) water jet cutting does not emit into the environment any dust or particles that are harmful if inhaled. Also presents an analysis of the fragmentation garnet – commonly used abrasive in this technology, ilmenite and olivine, and identified recycling potential of these abrasives.Tradycyjne metody produkcji mają negatywny wpływ na środowisko poprzez emisję produktów ubocznych procesu cięcia i erozji (wióry i mikrowióry), zużytej cieczy chłodząco-smarnej (oleje i emulsje, wzbogacone agresywnymi związkami chemicznymi) oraz wysokie zużycie energii. Nowoczesne systemy do obróbki mechanicznej powinny minimalizować ten wpływ. W artykule przedstawiono analizę zaawansowanej technologii produkcji – cięcia wysokociśnieniową strugą wodno-ścierną w aspekcie ochrony środowiska. W przeciwieństwie do tradycyjnej obróbki skrawaniem (szlifowanie, frezowanie) cięciu strumieniem wody nie towarzyszy emisja do środowiska pyłu i cząsteczek materiałów, które są szkodliwe. W artykule przedstawiono także analizę rozdrobnienia granatu – ścierniwa najczęściej stosowanego w tej technologii oraz ilmenitu i oliwinu oraz określono ich potencjał recyklingu

Evolution and systematics of nematodes based on molecular investigation

The use of molecular phylogenetics to examine the interrelationships between animal parasites, free-living nematodes, and plant parasites versus traditional classification based on morphological-ecological c haracters was discussed and reviewed. Distinct differences were observed between parasitic nematodes and free·living ones. Within the former group, animal parasites turned out to be distinctly different from plant parasites. Using small subunit of ribosomal RNA gene sequence from a wide range of nematodes, there is a possibility to compare animal-parasitic, plant-parasitic and free-living taxa. Nowadays the parasitic nematodes expressed sequence tag (EST) project is currently generating sequence information to provide a new source of data to examine the evolutionary history of this taxonomlc group