The Evil of Banality: Moby Dick vs. the Extreme Machine

In this article I am suggesting that Feidelson’s approach be appropriated for the contemplation and understanding of extra-literary phenomena like the extreme machine. As Russell Reising points out, Feidelson’s “historical premise—that symbolism arose at a particular historical moment —could generate semiotic analyses of the relationships between cultural texts (literature, advertising, political discourses and so on) and social contexts, even though the texts themselves purport to transcend social determination” (180). One might extrapolate from this passage to ask the following questions: How do popular mass-produced objects and trends take on symbolic weight in American culture? What connections might we make between these commodities and American literary texts that represent historical events, debates, and individual psychology? And more specifically, if also more whimsically, is there a secret symbolic relationship between Melville’s Moby-Dick and the extreme machine

The character and objects of Chaka: a re-consideration of the making of Shaka as Mfecane "motor"

African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented June, 1991In a series of papers and articles beginning in 1983, Julian Cobbing has offered a radical, and often provocative, critique of the "mfecane" as the pivotal concept of the history of southern Africa in the first half of the nineteenth century. (1) He asks vigorous new questions about everything from the identity of the "Fingoes" in the south and the "Mantatee hordes" on the highveld, to the extent of the slave trade around Delagoa Bay. Cobbing's work has stimulated a host of graduate studies on these topics, and has prompted a number of established students of the period to reassess aspects of their earlier work.(2) The sheer scope of the critique is, however, also the source of its greatest weakness. In particular, Cobbing has come under fire for making sweeping generalisations and employing imprecise periodisation. Nowhere is this criticism more pertinent than in relation to the lynchpin of Cobbing's thesis, namely, his view of Shaka-the-monster as a European invention to mask illegal labour procurement activities and land occupation. In this paper, I focus on Cobbing's reconstruction of the making of the Shaka myth. My purpose is to disentangle the elaborate weave of Cobbing's powerful insights and implausible conspiracy theories. I suggest that while Cobbing's critique is extremely valuable, especially in the way that it forces historians to question many of the assumptions with which they have for too long been extremely comfortable, he falls fundamentally to come to grips with the full complexity of his primary object of study, past historical myth-making processes

Symbolic Amateurs: On the Discourse of Amateurism in Contemporary Media Culture

The amateur is the person who engages in activities that for another constitute a professional work role. Despite the global drive for professional development, amateurs are increasingly valued in the digitised economy. This leads to a series of interesting and increasingly pressing questions with regard to the nature of ‘the amateur’ in modern society and culture. Are amateurs necessarily good? Is amateurism necessarily located with amateur practitioners? Do divisions between professional producers and amateurs hold relevance to a post-industrial, network economy

Working with Amateur Labour: Between Culture and Economy

An introduction to the 'Amateur Economies' special issue of CSR 19.1, with an overview of the themes and articles within

The legalization of same-sex marriage in a state is a signal that causes certain groups to change their opinion to support the policy

Five years ago, Iowa became the third U.S. state to allow same-sex marriages when the state Supreme Court issued a unanimous and very unpopular decision in the case Varnum v. Brien. Since this decision, public attitudes towards same-sex marriage in the state, and the United States in general, have changed dramatically. Rebecca Kreitzer, Allison Hamilton and Caroline Tolbert draw on a unique panel telephone survey in which the same individuals are interviewed before and after the Iowa Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage to understand what groups of citizens were most likely to change their opinions on marriage rights in response to the Court’s decision. We find that the signaling of new social norms by the Court pressured some respondents to modify their attitudes. As the states continue on this rapid trajectory of legalizing same-sex marriage, we may see substantial shifts in attitudes towards LGBT rights

A View from the other side: engaging retailers in tobacco point-of-sale reform in Allegheny County

Tobacco use disproportionately affects African Americans in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania compared to both the national rate of African Americans and that of Whites in Allegheny County, with many implications for adverse chronic disease health outcomes. Tobacco industry targeted marketing practices have historically resulted in legislation that shifted tobacco marketing to retail stores at the point-of-sale, where storeowners are uniquely situated as stakeholders in the retail environment and the community. This original investigation analyzes interviews with storeowners (n=6) of different types of corner stores in Allegheny County to inform and recommend future programming and policy approaches for the Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD) and partners that reduce tobacco exposure and marketing in the community. The findings indicate that storeowners in the sample determine their product mix and the inclusion or exclusion of tobacco products based on a dynamic interaction between business planning, customer input, and individual decision-making processes. Storeowners highlighted that many opportunities exist to reform the corner stores in Allegheny County through partnerships, store façade and interior improvements, incentives, and community engagement. An integration of these approaches can act to provide assistance such as improvements to the product mix, produce sourcing, and targeted marketing and advertising outreach to increase foot traffic through stores, all while engaging storeowners in the reform process. Tobacco control programs and policies that aim to reduce tobacco exposure in our communities must acknowledge that the built environment has an enormous impact on public health, and improvements have the ability to contribute to more equitable opportunities to be healthy

E-marketing orientation and social media implementation in B2B marketing

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to consider the potential of an organisational orientation, namely the electronic marketing orientation (EMO) to address implementation issues in business-to-business (B2B) social media implementation. Previous research has demonstrateddifferences between B2B and business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing.Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on existing B2B marketing, social media and organisational orientation literature, both academic and practitioner. This facilitates the development of a conceptual model and research proposition as a basis of further research into addressing contemporary barriers to B2B social media implementation.Findings – The paper contends that each of the four components of the EMO addresses different implementation issues faced in implementing social media and, more specifically, the unique issues faced by B2B marketers.Research limitations/implications – The paper is conceptual in nature; however, it provides directions for future empirical research.Practical implications – The differences in promotional and sales channels and messages required in B2B context are addressed in the research propositions. The paper highlights implementation challenges and how a particular organisational orientation can facilitate the decision-making in dealing with them.Originality/value – The paper provides a unique theoretical contribution by introducing the EMO conceptual model in a specific context of B2B social media marketing

The role of catch shares in Pacific halibut bycatch reduction in the U.S. West Coast bottom trawl fishery

Pacific halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis) are a valuable target species in the U.S. and Canada, but are also caught as bycatch in other groundfish fisheries. In 2011, a catch shares (CS) management program was implemented in the U.S. west coast limited entry (LE) bottom trawl fishery, shifting responsibility for catch limits, including P. halibut bycatch, from the fleet to individual vessels. After CS implementation, P. halibut bycatch decreased significantly from an annual mean of 312.5 metric tons (mt) (2007-2010) to 65.6 mt (2011-2014). I hypothesized that this reduction in P. halibut bycatch resulted from changes in fishing behavior initiated by the shift to CS. I evaluated changes in variables associated with P. halibut bycatch, including fishing latitude, depth, duration, and catch of correlated species, before and after CS implementation. Comparisons of associated variables under LE versus CS management showed that significant changes to all variables occurred after CS implementation. To predict and compare relative P. halibut bycatch among LE versus CS hauls, I modeled how associated variables predicted P. halibut encounters, bycatch weight, and mortality for LE data, and re-ran these models for CS data. My results indicate that the relationship between predictor variables and P. halibut bycatch changed under CS from what was observed in the LE fleet. These changed relationships suggest that fishers altered their behavior following the management shift, likely contributing to the reduction in P. halibut bycatch under CS management. This work will help the Pacific Fishery Management Council and International Pacific Halibut Commission understand how CS has changed fishing behavior and P. halibut bycatch in bottom trawl fisheries.Bachelor of Scienc