A labial art-politics

In this article we focus on the potential for an alignment of certain feminist artistic practices and poststructuralist conceptions of critique that may enable ways of theorising practices of resistance and engender ways of practicing resistance in theory, without the lurch back into masculinist forms of dogmatism. It will be claimed that an ontological conception of art, considered as that which makes a difference in the world, can not only challenge the primacy of the dogmatic and masculine ‘subject who judges’, but also instil ways of thinking about, and ways of enacting, feminist artistic encounters with the capacity to resist dogmatism. The theoretical stakes of this claim are elaborated through complimentary readings of Deleuze and Guattari’s constructivist account of philosophy and Irigaray’s feminist explorations of what it means to think from within the 'labial', rather than from the position of the dominant phallic symbolic order. We argue that this creative conjunction between Irigaray, Deleuze and Guattari provides the resources for a conceptualisation of both feminist artistic practice and the critical practice of poststructuralist philosophy as forms of resistance to the dominant patriarchal order, in ways that can avoid the collapse back into masculinist forms of dogmatism. Revel’s discussion of the role of constituent rather than constituted forms of resistance is employed to draw out the implications of this position for contentious politics. It is concluded that constituent practices of resistance can be understood as a challenge to the phallogocentric symbolic order to the extent that they are practices of a labial art-politic

Higher vector bundles and multi-graded symplectic manifolds

A natural explicit condition is given ensuring that an action of the multiplicative monoid of non-negative reals on a manifold F comes from homotheties of a vector bundle structure on F, or, equivalently, from an Euler vector field. This is used in showing that double (or higher) vector bundles present in the literature can be equivalently defined as manifolds with a family of commuting Euler vector fields. Higher vector bundles can be therefore defined as manifolds admitting certain $\N^n$-grading in the structure sheaf. Consequently, multi-graded (super)manifolds are canonically associated with higher vector bundles that is an equivalence of categories. Of particular interest are symplectic multi-graded manifolds which are proven to be associated with cotangent bundles. Duality for higher vector bundles is then explained by means of the cotangent bundles as they contain the collection of all possible duals. This gives, moreover, higher generalizations of the known `universal Legendre transformation' T*E->T*E*, identifying the cotangent bundles of all higher vector bundles in duality. The symplectic multi-graded manifolds, equipped with certain homological Hamiltonian vector fields, lead to an alternative to Roytenberg's picture generalization of Lie bialgebroids, Courant brackets, Drinfeld doubles and can be viewed as geometrical base for higher BRST and Batalin-Vilkovisky formalisms. This is also a natural framework for studying n-fold Lie algebroids and related structures.Comment: 27 pages, minor corrections, to appear in J. Geom. Phy

‘Public-spirited men’: economic unionist nationalism in inter-war Scotland

The prolonged economic slump which overshadowed much of the inter-war period encouraged a small number of Clydeside industrialists to intervene with bold plans to restructure and revive the Scottish economy. Key figures like Sir James Lithgow and Lord Weir exploited their business, banking and political connections, in Scotland and in London, to produce a uniquely Scottish response to the inter-war crisis. Championing the existing Union and imperial relationships, they nevertheless articulated a new sense of Scottish exceptionalism. Convinced that any revival in trade was dependent on rationalisation of the heavy industries and an ambitious programme of diversification, Lithgow, Weir and their associates promoted distinctive Scottish solutions. Building on the work of Graeme Morton, the article suggests that what emerged was an economic Unionist Nationalism which built alliances between business and civic Scotland to secure Scottish interests while acknowledging the primacy of Union. The mechanism used to achieve their aims was based upon the associational culture of Scottish business, ‘self-help’ voluntary bodies which carefully steered an independent path, avoiding, where possible, direct state involvement. Yet the depth and persistence of the global depression, and the urgency of the task at hand in Scotland itself, encouraged the business community to moderate its hostility to interventionism and economic planning and engage with new partners. The founding of the Scottish National Development Council in the early 1930s, bringing business and civil society together to help foster economic revival, was a crucial staging post on the journey towards corporatism. Motivated by a mix of public-spiritedness and self-interest, there was, however, a strong defensive element to their actions as the essentially conservative industrialists sought to ward off social, political and economic threats from within Scotland. Their willingness to step forward suggests a traditional sense of patrician responsibility, but there was also an acute awareness of the need to adapt; a progressive quality missing from other actors

The Effects of Working for Pay during the School Year on Academic Achievement

Are college students who hold paying jobs systematically disadvantaged in terms of academic achievement? This study draws on a sample of 340 undergraduate students at a large public university to examine the relationship between socioeconomic status and academic achievement. Socioeconomic status was measured by the presence of a paid job during the school year, and achievement was measured using GPA. The findings indicate that students who worked during the school year were less likely to be “A” students than students who did not work during the school year. This relationship was more pronounced for female college students than for male college students. Future research on this topic should use a larger sample that is more representative of the population, in order to generalize these results. The results of this study show possible reproduction of inequality present in post-secondary education

The Role of the Manufacturer in Air Transportation Planning

The role of the aircraft manufacturer in the airline industry is considered. The process is illustrated by using a fictitious airline as an example--that is, a case study approach with Mid-Coast Airways serving as the example. Both in slide form and with supporting papers, a brief history of the airline, a description of its route structure and a forecast based on econometric analysis are presented. Once the forecast rationale is explained, information outlines the requirements for additional aircraft and the application of new aircraft across the system using alternative fleet plan options. The fleet plan is translated into financial summaries which indicate the relative merit of alternative aircraft types or operating plans

The Yogācāra Theory of Three Natures: Internalist and Non-Dualist Interpretations

According to Vasubandhu’s Trisvabhāvanirdeśa or Treatise on the Three Natures, experiential phenomena can be understood in terms of three natures: the constructed (parikalpita), the dependent (paratantra), and the consummate (pariniṣpanna). This paper will examine internalist and anti-internalist or non-dualist interpretations of the Yogācāra theory of the three natures of experience. The internalist interpretation is based on representationalist theory of experience wherein the contents of experience are logically independent of their cause and various interconnected cognitive processes continually create an integrated internal world-model that is transparent to the cognitive system that creates and uses it. In contrast, the anti-internalist interpretation begins, not from the constructed nature of experiential objects, but from the perfected nature of mind-world non-duality. This interpretation treats the distinctions between inside and outside, subject and object, mind and world as distinctions drawn within experience rather than between experience and something else. And experience here refers to the continuous dynamic interplay of factors constituting our sentient embodied (nāma-rūpa) existence. Having examined each interpretation, the paper will suggest some reasons to favor the non-dualist view

Native Americans and Athletic Scholarships

This research examines the potential effects of collegiate athletic scholarships on Native American athlete’s lives and the lives of the people in their communities. The main focus of this study is to investigate whether it is more likely that Native American students on athletic scholarships will graduate from college and how it affects their reservation communities. Furthermore, it seeks to discover if Native communities look more favorably on their students pursuing higher education when achieved through athletic talent and why this might be the case. This research is important because there is a cycle of alcoholism, drug abuse, poverty, and poor family dynamics, prevalent among Native American reservations. If athletic scholarships can produce a ripple effect that leads to restoring these communities, it is crucial that school administrators, coaches, educators, and parents prioritize the accessibility and awareness of these scholarships. This research could have a large effect on Native American communities by spreading awareness of the opportunity and change collegiate athletic scholarships can bring to Native Americans