Examining 'window dressing' : the views of black police associations on recruitment and training

In a previous issue of this journal, Ellis Cashmore (2002 Cashmore, E. 2002. ‘Behind the window dressing: minority ethnic police perspectives on cultural diversity’. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 28(2): 327–41. [Taylor & Francis Online], [CSA], [Google Scholar] ) discussed two key issues currently confronting police constabularies in England and Wales: the recruitment of minority ethnic officers and civilian staff, and the impact of diversity training now in place for all police officers. Cashmore argued that not only are these policies ineffective in enhancing cultural diversity within constabularies, but that they are harmful, presenting a false outward image of effective action. This article examines Cashmore's arguments and develops them in light of findings from recent research on Black Police Associations (BPAs) in England and Wales. Our findings firstly suggest that, because of heavy involvement with these initiatives and the close relationship BPAs have developed with senior management (in comparison to non-BPA members), they must be considered in any discussion of minority ethnic recruitment and diversity training. In addition, the majority of the officers we interviewed were supportive of current recruitment and training programmes. Secondly, we argue that BPAs are helping to change the nature of the overall police culture to a certain extent. Many minority ethnic officers no longer feel they must downplay their ethnicity as members of constabularies

Kom W and X Basin: Erosion, Deposition, and the Potential for Village Occupation

The twentieth-century excavations of stratified deposits at Kom W, adjacent to Lake Qarun in Fayum north shore, Egypt, led to a variety of interpretations, including the argument for the presence of a Neolithic village. This has influenced the evaluation of early to mid-Holocene occupation in Egypt. Here, we report our recent study of the erosion and deposition processes at the site and its environs in order to reassess these interpretations. Changes in the level of Lake Qarun, evidence for wind erosion, deflation, and deposition, and analyses of artifact density provide a geomorphic context for Kom W and its immediate environs. Radiocarbon determinations from surface hearths that surround the Kom are reported. From the time of its initial formation, Kom W was subject to post-depositional processes, particularly wind erosion, which have affected the site’s current form, and the preservation of features and artifact within the deposits. These changes need to be considered when deriving behavioral interpretations from the archaeological record at Kom W and in the surrounding area. The composition of deflated deposits that surround Kom W suggests that the site is not as unique as once imagined. Remains that might have allowed interpretations of a village occupation have not survived. Instead, deposits are consistent with other early to mid-Holocene occupations interpreted as locations with the use of domesticates but without villages

References for \u3ci\u3eTime in Archaeology: Time Perspectivism Revisited\u3c/i\u3e

22 pages of reference bibliography for the 2008 anthology of articles on archeology, methodology, and time

The occupational culture of urban policing, an ethnographic study.

This thesis is based on ethnographic data gathered by the author during his period of service as a police officer working in an inner city area. The research described concerns an analysis of the occupational culture of urban policing. First, literature on the sociology of the police is reviewed. Particular attention is given to recent Marxist analyses of the police and more classical work by William Westley and Jerome Skolnick. The former research is criticised for its lack of attention to the occupational culture, the latter for presenting ambiguous evidence as if it were plain. The thesis is then placed within the context of the sociology of the police and the recent history of British policing; particular attention is given to the development of 'professional policing'. Three substantive issues then form the major focus of the thesis. First, changes in the occupational culture since Dr Maureen Cain ··completed her research are described and analysed. The important changes of Unit Beat Policing and the professionalisation of the police are given particular consideration. Further, knowledge of the occupational culture is advanced into new areas; techniques of control, spatial and temporal perception and police use of 'verballing' and physical force are analysed. Secondly, criticism is made of Manning's recent work on policing in Anglo-American societies. It is argued that Manning provides insufficient data to sustain his thesis and differences between the British and American settings are outlined. Using Schutz's theory of relevance, data are used to chart primary and secondary aspects of the British occupational culture; this. offers a new perspective on urban policing. Thirdly, the thesis deals with the notion that policing is 'socially constructed'. Manning's research is of further interest at this point. His thesis is criticised, not least for stating that policing is socially i constructed, without demonstrating ~ that construction is achieved in the course of routine police work. Data gathered during the author's period of fieldwork are used to describe features of police work which sustain lower ranks' definition of their task. Overall, the thesis demonstrates the continuing dominance of lower police ranks who maintain freedom from legal and organisational constraints to practise police work as they define it

Colour as a symbol in New Zealand prehistory

This thesis explores a new method for looking at the symbolic importance of prehistoric material culture by investigating a non functional attribute. The attribute selected is the colour red and· its relevance to the study of various items of prehistoric Maori material culture is explored. The operational and positional meanings of the symbol are defined through the use of records kept by 18th and 19th century explorers in the Pacific; semantics of Polynesian terms which can in some way be associated with the colour red; and studies which deal with social institutions of traditional Polynesian cultures. The antiquity of the colour symbolism is investigated using a method adopted from historical linguistics. The operational and positional meanings of the symbol are defined for five cultures from East Polynesia: Tahiti, Hawaii, the Marquesas, Easter Island and New Zealand. Common symbolic associations between all five are most likely to be due to a common origin and have been conservatively maintained in each of the cultures. Common associations for the colour red in East Polynesia are shown to include the category tapu and the atua, a concern with genealogy and chiefly status, and often an association with warfare. In prehistoric New Zealand, archaeological support is found for these common associations in the form of burial practices, the colouring of godsticks and burial chests I and the material excavated from Kauri Point Swamp. Using the symbolic associations for the colour previously defined, their relevance to the study of various items of prehistoric material culture from one region is explored. Information on the prehistory of Southern New Zealand is collated and a number of new interpretations put forward. A final element of this thesis considers the conservative nature of the symbolic associations defined. A model is suggested relating this conservatism to other aspects of culture and the situation in Polynesia is contrasted with other areas of Oceania. The thesis concludes by emphasizing the importance of New Zealand's place in East Polynesia when considering aspects of prehistoric symbolism

Aggregates, Formational Emergence, and the Focus on Practice in Stone Artifact Archaeology

The stone artifact record has been one of the major grounds for investigating our evolution. With the predominant focus on their morphological attributes and technological aspects of manufacture, stone artifacts and their assemblages have been analyzed as explicit measures of past behaviors, adaptations, and population histories. This analytical focus on technological andmorphological appearance is one of the characteristics of the conventional approach for constructing inferences from this record. An equally persistent routine involves ascribing the emerged patterns and variability within the archaeological deposits directly to long-term central tendencies in human actions and cultural transmission. Here we re-evaluate this conventional approach. By invoking some of the known concerns and concepts about the formation of archaeological record, we introduce notions of aggregates and formational emergence to expand on the understanding of how artifacts accumulate, what these accumulations represent, and how the patterns and variability among them emerge. To infer behavior that could inform on past lifeways, we further promote a shift in the focus of analysis from the technological and morphological appearance of artifacts and assemblages to the practice of stone use. We argue for a more rigorous and multi-level inferential procedure in modeling behavioral adaptation and evolution

Major Fallacies Surrounding Stone Artifacts and Assemblages

While lithic objects can potentially inform us about past adaptations and behaviors, it is important to develop a comprehensive understanding of all of the various processes that influence what we recover from the archaeological record. We argue here that many assumptions used by archaeologists to derive behavioral inferences through the definition, conceptualization, and interpretation of both individual stone artifact forms and groups of artifacts identified as assemblages do not fit squarely with what we have learned from both ethnographic sources and analyses of archaeological materials. We discuss this in terms of two fallacies. The first is the fallacy of the “desired end product” in stone artifact manufacture, which also includes our ability to recognize such end products. The second fallacy has to do with the notions that lithic assemblages represent simple accumulations of contemporary behaviors and the degree to which the composition of the depositional units we study reliably match the kinds of activities that took place. Although it is beyond the scope of this paper to offer a comprehensive set of new methodologies and theoretical perspectives to solve these problems, our goal here is to stress the importance of rethinking some of our most basic assumptions regarding the nature of lithic objects and how they become part of the archaeological record. Such a revision is needed if we want to be able to develop research questions that can be addressed with the data we have available to us

The re-professionalization of the police in England and Wales

In this article contemporary police claims to professional status are analysed and related to a new structure of police regulation in England and Wales. It is argued that the notion of the police as a profession is not new and, unlike police and academic commentary, analysis of this subject, should draw on sociological understandings of professions. The wider policy context within which claims to professionalisation are made is also considered. It is argued that a new, loosely-coupled system of regulation has been developed in England and Wales. Policing’s professional body, the College of Policing, is central to this regulatory framework that has placed government at a distance from constabularies and police representative associations. Finally, some of the consequences of the hybrid system are considered and benefits of the framework of analysis proposed are discussed