The Necessity of Agency:Social Practice in Late Capitalist Modes of Cultural Production

As art has become more and more coopted in globalized capital, and the role of art as labor has become more and more obscured by questions of class and increased technological reproduction, socially engaged art (SEA) is a gesture toward the reclaiming of art as communal (and therefore inherently class-conscious) event. By a careful analysis of the role of the market in the identification of something as art, and the role of celebrity as a function of such a christening, I take a critical stance as a basic methodology for what is ultimately a class-based analysis of art, as suggested, for instance, by the work of Ben Davis. It is only by the careful working out of such class assumptions regarding not only art, but the act of writing about art, and certainly the act of writing about art in a dissertation within an institution that bears authority regarding the establishment of art practices, that the ground can be cleared for a constructive argument. This is an argument that has only gained in force in the art world itself as more and more artists have sought to create artistic experiences outside of the normative function of the gallery or the power structures of the university. By examining the class structure of art practice, the dissertation will assess the role of art as labor, and the role of art in production of community cultural development. Through various socially engaged projects, I analyze art not as an objectoriented means of production within a system of commodities, but as the encapsulating “house” of community. As such, art practice is that which opens onto self-realization of the collective within the horizon of the new. This, it should be noted, is also most often today seen as the role of science. The position of the expert haunts both art and science, but whereas it is a burden for art to carry such a vestige of neoliberal enlightenment, science readily accepts the figure of the expert in science as the one who enlightens. In this way, both art and science make truth claims, but science—in its aspects as cultural guardian of positivism—leads into a labyrinth of technology; art, on the other hand, leads into the open. Education, therefore, is not something that teaches art, but is in itself an art practice, a socially engaged practice that is fully in keeping with a class-based notion of art. Through the communal production of knowledge, art again has a particular truthvalue that is established through communication. Art is both an inherently political discourse, but also that discourse which is established through the creative and intimate space of silence (again, a space that is foreclosed through the vantages of power). Through education, through the juxtaposition of “class” and “Class,” art establishes a radical aesthetics, in the old sense of radical—getting to the root. This radical act, then, is the radical act of site-specificity of the immediate temporality that constitutes the practice. As a landscaper prior to beginning my art practice, I understand art as “earthwork,” the tending and nurturing inherent in gardening, but also the clearing necessary for such an event to take place. As I have suggested, this is exactly what is required for art as radical rootedness to come to the fore. Art is a temporal modality of being: it is inherently futural in its activation, though rooted in the past. That is what has drawn me to print as propaganda, knowing its rich history, but also its possibility as what Carse calls an “infinite game.” Art is a necessary communal practice that has been coopted to support the logic of late capitalism. This has uprooted it into the flow of commodities through the art market. Experimental practices such as socially engaged art are necessary to destabilize and undermine this power structure to retain the grassroots, radically democratic nature of art

Combined space environment on spacecraft engineering materials

Spacecraft structures and surface materials exposed to the space environment for extended periods, up to thirty years, have increased potential for damage from long term exposure to the combined space environment including solar ultraviolet radiation, electrons, and protons and orbiting space debris. The space environment in which the Space Station Freedom and other space platforms will orbit is truly a hostile environment. For example, the currently estimated integral fluence for electrons above 1 Mev at 2000 nautical miles is above 2 x 10(exp 10) electrons/cm(sup 2)/day and the proton integral fluence is above 1 x 10(exp 9) protons/cm(sup 2)/day. At the 200 - 400 nautical miles, which is more representative of the altitude which will provide the environment for the Space Station, each of these fluences will be proportionately less; however, the data indicates that the radiation environment will obviously have an effect on structural materials exposed to the environment for long durations. The effects of ultraviolet radiation, particularly in the vacuum ultraviolet (less than 200 nm wavelength) is more difficult to characterize at this time. Very little data is available in the literature which can be used for determining the life cycle of a material placed in space for extended durations of time. In order to obtain critical data for planning and designing of spacecraft systems, use of a small vacuum system at the Environmental Effects Facility at MSFC, which can be used for these purposes was used. A special effort was made to build up this capability during the course of this research effort and perform a variety of experiments on materials proposed for the Space Station. A description of the apparatus and the procedure devised to process potential spacecraft materials is included

Sickle Cell Screening of College Athletes: Legal Obligations Fulfilled, Moral Obligations Lacking

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A Cross-Case Study of Teacher Perceptions of Program Design and Teaching Efficacy: The Seaview Reading Support Program

Teachers at Seaview Elementary School developed an innovative reading support program delivered by classroom teachers to increase the achievement of children who struggled to read literature in the district\u27s core curriculum. Although studies of the program\u27s impact on student achievement indicated that many of the children who received services in the classroom were able to fluently read grade level materials and improve their scores on standardized tests, issues created by the additional burden of this instruction on some teachers prevented the integration of the program into other grade levels and schools in the Seaview School District and Seaview Elementary School. A cross-case analysis of the teachers involved in the Seaview Reading Support Program was conducted in order to (1) describe the level of achievement of students participating in the program, (2) examine how Seaview teachers perceived the effects of the program on student achievement, (3) identify program elements that teachers felt facilitated or detracted from positive changes in student reading, and (4) examine relationships between teachers\u27 perceptions of the program, level of teacher involvement, and teachers\u27 sense of personal efficacy in teaching reading. A combination of semi-structured interviews, a scale measuring general and personal efficacy in teaching reading, and student assessment data was collected to address the research questions on student achievement and teacher perceptions. Most teachers felt the reading support program increased student reading fluency and confidence in reading. Teachers perceived the Reading Mastery program and its continuity through the grade levels to support student achievement. Teachers perceived several factors to hinder positive student achievement in reading, including lack of collaboration between staff members, lack of training and support, and lack of leadership within the program. The results of this study add to the literature on critical elements of reading intervention. Many studies of early reading focus only on instructional materials and methodologies, with little consideration of program factors that make effective instruction possible. This study supports previous research identifying the critical elements of reading intervention programs and provides additional evidence of the importance of staff development and leadership in sustaining these programs

Issue Editor Reflection

This special issue of the Journal of Family Strengths enhances the conversation related to interventions that will be most helpful to assist our African American and Latino males be successful in the classroom. Unique to this issue is a series of Prospectus from the Field op-ed pieces from emerging scholars and seasoned administrators. As we consider the impact of low academic achievement on African American and Latino males throughout the P-20 educational continuum, we are delighted to feature new perspectives on this critical issue in this special issue

The age of racial profiling in the context of terrorism

Racial profiling refers to the law enforcement practice of using only race or ethnicity as probable cause to search or arrest an individual. The public has found racial profiling to be unjustified in the context of common crime, but tends to support the practice in the context of terrorism. The current study uses an explicit judgment survey to examine the expression of prejudice and factors that influence stereotyping. The study found that participants aged 18 to 24, and those who identified with a political party, were the participants most likely to racially profile individuals with stereotypical Middle-Eastern features to be potential terrorists

Indebted and overweight: The link between weight and household debt

There is a substantial correlation between household debt and bodyweight. Theory suggests that a causal relationship between debt and bodyweight could run in either direction or both could be caused by unobserved common factors. We use OLS and Propensity Score Matching to ascertain if household debt (measured by credit card indebtedness and having trouble paying bills) is a potential cause of obesity. We find a strong positive correlation between debt and weight for women but this seems driven largely by unobservables. In contrast, men with trouble paying their bills are thinner and this is robust to various specification checks

Toward a Model for Fisheries Social Impact Assessment

This paper presents a model for Fisheries Social Impact Assessment (SIA) that lays the groundwork for development of fisheries-focused, quantitative social assessments with a clear conceptual model. The usefulness of current fisheries SIA’s has been called into question by some as incompatible with approaches taken by fisheries biologists and economists when assessing potential effects of management actions. Our model’s approach is closer to the economists’ and biologists’ assessments and is therefore more useful for Fishery Management Council members. The paper was developed by anthropologists initially brought together in 2004 for an SIA Modeling Workshop by the National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA. Opinions and conclusions expressed or implied are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policy of the National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA

Beyond Leptin: Emerging Candidates for the Integration of Metabolic and Reproductive Function during Negative Energy Balance

Reproductive status is tightly coupled to metabolic state in females, and ovarian cycling in mammals is halted when energy output exceeds energy input, a metabolic condition known as negative energy balance. This inhibition of reproductive function during negative energy balance occurs due to suppression of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) release in the hypothalamus. The GnRH secretagogue kisspeptin is also inhibited during negative energy balance, indicating that inhibition of reproductive neuroendocrine circuits may occur upstream of GnRH itself. Understanding the metabolic signals responsible for the inhibition of reproductive pathways has been a compelling research focus for many years. A predominant theory in the field is that the status of energy balance is conveyed to reproductive neuroendocrine circuits via the adipocyte hormone leptin. Leptin is stimulatory for GnRH release and lower levels of leptin during negative energy balance are believed to result in decreased stimulatory drive for GnRH cells. However, recent evidence found that restoring leptin to physiological levels did not restore GnRH function in three different models of negative energy balance. This suggests that although leptin may be an important permissive signal for reproductive function as indicated by many years of research, factors other than leptin must critically contribute to negative energy balance-induced reproductive inhibition. This review will focus on emerging candidates for the integration of metabolic status and reproductive function during negative energy balance