Bubbles and Bees: Historical Exploration of Psychosocial Thinking

This paper is written from the belief that there is considerable benefit from a historical exploration of psychosocial thinking. It examines the work of Bernard Mandeville (1670-1733), who wrote what became a somewhat infamous piece of social theory in the early decades of the 18th century. There are two principal purposes to this historical study. Firstly, it makes the case that psychosocial thought needs to be understood as products of particular social and cultural circumstances and therefore such reflection can help us put our own efforts to ‘think psychosocially’ in the early 21st century into context. Secondly, there are some important parallels between the early 18th century and the contemporary period that can help us understand more about the resurgence in interest in psychosocial thinking that emerged at the end of the 20th century

Afrocentric Ideologies and Gendered Resistance in Daughters of the Dust and Malcolm X: Setting, Scene, and Spectatorship

This study of scenes from the films Daughters of the Dust and Malcolm X, describes images of myth, gender, and resistance familiar to African-American interpretive communities. Key thematic and technical elements of these films are opposed to familiar Hollywood practices, indicating the directors\u27 effort to address resisting spectators. Both filmmakers, Julie Dash and Spike Lee respectively, chose subjects with an ideological resonance in African-American collective memory: Malcolm X, eulogized by Ossie Davis as our living black manhood (i) and the women of the Gullah Sea Islands, a site often celebrated for its authentically African cultural survivals. Both films combine images of an African past with an American present using a pattern of historically specific myths and tropes

Planetary Nebulae: What can they tell us about close binary evolution?

It is now clear that a binary pathway is responsible for a significant fraction of planetary nebulae, and the continually increasing sample of known central binaries means that we are now in a position to begin to use these systems to further our understanding of binary evolution. Binary central stars of planetary nebulae are key laboratories in understanding the formation processes of a wide-range of astrophysical phenomena - a point well-illustrated by the fact that the only known double-degenerate, super-Chandrasekhar mass binary which will merge in less than a Hubble time is found inside a planetary nebula. Here, I briefly outline our current understanding and avenues for future investigation.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of "Physics of Evolved Stars 2015 - A conference dedicated to the memory of Olivier Chesneau" http://poe2015.sciencesconf.org

Hypermedia for language learning: The FREE model at Coventry University

Coventry University is pioneering the integration of hypermedia into the curriculum for the teaching of Italian language and society with the creation of a package based on Nerino Rossi's novel La neve nel bicchiere. The novel was already in use as a basic course text, and developing a hypermedia package was felt to be the ideal way of creating a more stimulating means of access to it. The procedure used in creating the package is described, as are its contents, the ways in which the students use it and the tasks they are given to perform, the feedback from the students, and its impact on their performance. The testing of the prototype has helped in creating a new cognitive model: the FREE (Fluid Role‐Exchange Environment) which functions as a fluid and interactive ‘pool’ where the three main actors, or act ants, ie. the learner, the lecturer and the computer, exchange roles. Within the FREE, students were involved in the construction and evaluation of the courseware, as well as testing the various versions of the prototype. The development and use of hypermedia inside and outside the classroom has made it possible to change both the students’ and the lecturer's attitude towards the material being learnt. However, the courseware does not seem to equip students sufficiently for essay writing, and this problem needs further investigation

Remembering the body: Deleuze's recollection-image, and the spectacle of physical memory in Yip Man/Ip Man(2008)

This article explores how Gilles Deleuze’s conceptualization of the flashback, as‘recollection-image’, can assist our understanding of the rendering spectacular of physical memory in contemporary Chinese martial arts movies. The focus is a prominent flashback in the climactic duel in the kung fu movie, Yip Man/Ip Man (Yip, 2008). This recollection-image demonstrates how trained bodies in Chinese martial art movies suggest a slightly different understanding of time and affect from that which Deleuze formulated, based on his observation of US and European films. On textual, cultural and historical levels this article explores the usefulness of martial arts movies for developing our understanding of physicality in cinema, and for reconsidering Deleuze’s ideas in light of the Eurocentrism of some of his conclusions

Interstate competition and political stability

Previous theories of globalization have examined factor mobility’s effect on the political conflict between social classes. But factor mobility also increases competition between state rulers in provid- ing services for citizens. I ask how this interstate competition affects the process of political change. In a simple model, interstate competition substitutes for democracy, by forcing rulers to invest in pub- lic goods so as to avoid capital and labor leaving the country. As a result, citizens are less willing to struggle for democracy, and rulers are less willing to oppose it, when interstate competition is strong. Therefore, there is less conflict over the level of democracy. The theory is tested on a post-war panel of countries, using neighboring countries’ financial openness as a proxy for factor mobility. As the theory predicts, states experience fewer changes in their level of democracy when their neighbors are financially open