412 research outputs found

    Tourism in the European economic crisis: Mediatised worldmaking and new tourist imaginaries in Greece

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    The paper interrogates the rationale and origins of changing imaginaries of tourism in Greece in the context of the current economic crisis. We detect a radical change in the ‘picture’ of the country that circulates in global media conduits (YouTube, Facebook, official press websites and personal blogs). We enact a journey into past media representations of Greece as an idyllic peasant and working-class site, but proceed to highlight that such representations are being recycled today by Greeks living and studying abroad. This stereotype, which focuses on embodied understandings of happiness and well-being is being challenged by the current economic crisis. In its place, we detect the emergence of a new dark and slum imaginary, propagated by both native and global intellectuals-activists. The new imaginary both tests in practice and bears the potential to re-invent Greece as a tourist destination. Not only is the change informed by the European histories of art, slum and dark tourism focusing on middle-class refinement and philanthropy, it also bears the potential to promote Greece as a cultural tourist destination in global value hierarchies in controversial ways

    The past as a lived space: heritage places, re-emergent aesthetics, and hopeful practices in NW Argentina

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    PublishedArticleThis article explores the past as a lived, inhabited reality through a series of examples of indigenous heritage practices in NW Argentina (NWA), a region that in recent decades has seen increasing indigenous demands for autonomy as well as for land and cultural rights. This article seeks to understand the locations where heritage struggles emerge, as well as the artefacts around which they emerge, as social, semantic, and physical spaces of ontological multiplicity. Understanding how such places and artefacts are constituted as lived-in-the-flesh realities today requires examination of the multiple present connections that make them possible, as well as inquiry into how the sedimentation of previous lived experiences contributes to present understandings. This article examines ancient places that become gravity points, fuelling both indigenous politics and an academic practice with its own aesthetic code. To varying degrees, the cases explored reflect our involvement – as archaeological researchers, professional advisors,and museum visitors – with re-emergent indigenous heritage practices in the region.This research was funded by an Arts and Humanities Research Council grant entitled ‘Identities as socio-material networks: perspectives from South America and beyond’ (2010–12, http://identities.exeter.ac.uk/)

    Madrid: Literary Fiction and the Imaginary Urban Destination

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    This study selects novels from French and Spanish language traditions, which may not be available to English-speakers, in order to determine if specific aspects throw light on our understanding of Madrid as a destination. Marc Lambron's L'Impromptu de Madrid and Antonio Munoz Molina’s Mysteries of Madrid are taken as proof of the influence the narrative can exert on social daily life and consumption. Narrative foregrounds the fictions which are at stake in imagining the city as destination and also provides a vehicle for presenting the much broader social forces that converge in the author at the time of imagining and writing

    Social Interaction and Communities of Practice in Formative Period NW Argentina: A Multi-analytical Study of Ceramics

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    This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from University of New Mexico Press via the link in this recordThe study of long-distance exchange of goods and resources has long been central to the understanding of socio-political and cultural complexity in the south-central Andes. Traditional studies have emphasized typological similarities to reconstruct regional networks, proposing the dominance of different centres through time. While these approaches were informative on the general direction of contacts, the nature and scale of interaction has remained speculative. This chapter summarises the latest results of our ongoing research project on long-distance circulation of archaeological materials in northwestern Argentina during part of the Formative Period (ca. 1500 BC-AD 1000). The study applied a multianalytical methodological strategy integrating archaeological analysis with archaeometric techniques, including thin section petrography, instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) and laser ablation inductively coupled massspectometry (LA-ICP-MS) in order to contribute an evidence-based holistic view of preHispanic exchange networks. The study examined materials traditionally studied separately, including 542 ceramic samples and 113 obsidian and volcanic rock artifacts, from seven sectors in the semi-arid valleys area. We summarize here the results of the ceramic analysis, showing the 19-2 following trends: (1) inter-valley heterogeneity of clay and fabrics for ordinary wares; (2) intervalley homogeneity of clay and fabrics for a wide range of decorated wares; (3) selective circulation of two distinct polychrome wares. These trends reflect the complex inter-community relationships experienced in small-scale societies. The study offers a new platform to model ancient exchange, and circulation and interaction more broadly, based on actual material transfers. The results call for the re-examination of the centralized models of exchange and interaction that are often drawn upon to account for emergent cultural complexity in the past, both in the Andes and beyond.British AcademyArts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)Argentinean National Agency for Science and Technology (ANPCyT)Raíces ProgramArgentinian National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET

    Electronic characterization of redox (non)-innocent Fe2S2 reference systems:a multi K-edge X-ray spectroscopic study

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    Di-iron dithiolate hydrogenase model complexes are promising systems for electrocatalytic production of dihydrogen and have therefore been spectroscopically and theoretically investigated in this study. The direct effect of ligand substitution on the redox activity of the complex is examined. In order to understand and eventually optimize such systems, we characterised both metal and ligand in detail, using element specific X-ray absorption Fe- and S-K edge XAS. The (electronic) structure of three different [Fe2S2] hydrogenase systems in their non-reduced state was investigated. The effect of one- and two-electron reduction on the (electronic) structure was subsequently investigated. The S K-edge XAS spectra proved to be sensitive to delocalization of the electron density into the aromatic ring. The earlier postulated charge and spin localization in these complexes could now be measured directly using XANES. Moreover, the electron density (from S K-edge XANES) could be directly correlated to the Fe–CO bond length (from Fe K-edge EXAFS), which are in turn both related to the reported catalytic activity of these complexes. The delocalization of the electron density into the conjugated π-system of the aromatic moieties lowers the basicity of the diiron core and since protonation occurs at the diiron (as a rate determining step), lowering the basicity decreases the extent of protonation and consequently the catalytic activity

    The AGE Presents Introduction to Geroscience video lecture series.

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    The AGE Presents Introduction to Geroscience video lecture series is a collection of high-quality didactic video lectures and associated teaching materials focused on foundational topics in aging biology. The videos are made freely available on YouTube and are targeted toward an audience familiar with concepts learned in the first year of a college undergraduate biology/biomedical major. Members of the American Aging Association also receive the original lecture slides and lecture notes, with additional course materials to be developed in the future. We expect that these lectures will enhance understanding of geroscience among the general public while also providing tools that educators can use in the classroom for high school, undergraduate, and graduate level curricula

    Spectroscopic Investigation of the Activation of a Chromium-Pyrrolyl Ethene Trimerization Catalyst

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    1-Hexene is an important α-olefin for polyethylene production and is produced from ethene. Recent developments in the α-olefin industry have led to the successful commercialization of ethene trimerization catalysts. An important industrially applied ethene trimerization system uses a mixture of chromium 2-ethylhexanoate, AlEt3, AlEt2Cl, and 2,5-dimethylpyrrole (DMP). Here, we have studied the activation of this system using catalytic and spectroscopic experiments (XAS, EPR, and UV–vis) under conditions employed in industry. First, chromium 2-ethylhexanoate was prepared and characterized to be [Cr3O­(RCO2)6(H2O)3]­Cl. Next, the activation of chromium 2-ethylhexanoate with AlEt3, AlEt2Cl, and DMP was studied, showing immediate reduction (<5 ms) of the trinuclear Cr­(III) carboxylate and formation of a neutral polynuclear Cr­(II) carboxylate complex. Over time, this Cr­(II) carboxylate complex is partially converted into a chloro-bridged dinuclear Cr­(II) pyrrolyl complex. In cyclohexane, small quantities of an unknown Cr­(I) complex (∼1% after 1 h) are observed, while in toluene, the quantity of Cr­(I) is much higher (∼23% after 1 h). This is due to the formation of cationic bis­(tolyl)­Cr­(I) complexes, which likely leads to the observed inferior performance using toluene as the reaction solvent. Catalytic studies allow us to exclude some of the observed Cr­(I) and Cr­(II) complexes as the active species in this catalytic system. Using this combination of techniques, we have been able to structurally characterize complexes of this selective Cr-catalyzed trimerization system under conditions which are employed in industry
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