Timothy O'Riordan and Timothy Lenton (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265536
- eISBN:
- 9780191760327
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265536.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Environmental Politics
This book places tipping points in their scientific, economic,
governmental, creative, and spiritual contexts. It seeks to offer a comprehensive set of
...
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This book places tipping points in their scientific, economic,
governmental, creative, and spiritual contexts. It seeks to offer a comprehensive set of
interpretations on the meaning and application of tipping points. Its contribution focuses on the
various characterisations and metaphors of tipping points, on the scope for anticipating their
onset, the capacity for societal resilience in the face of their impending arrival, and for better
ways of communicating and preparing societies, economies, and governments for accommodating them,
and hence to turn them into responses which buffer and better human well-being. Above all, the
possibility of preparing society for creative and benign ‘tips’ is a unifying theme. The conclusion
is sombre but not without hope. Thresholds of profound change can combine earth system-based
relatively abrupt shifts with human-caused alterations of these disturbed patterns which, coupled
together, produce more rapid onsets and greater tensions and stresses for governments and economies,
as well as socially unequal societies. There is still time to predict and address these thresholds
but too much delay will make the task of accommodation very difficult to achieve with relevant-scale
community support. There are many examples of adaptive resilience throughout the world. These should
be identified, supported, and emulated according to cultural acceptance and emerging economic
realities. But there is no guarantee that the necessary adjustments can be made in time, as emerging
patterns of outlook and governance do not appear to be conducive to manage the very awkward
transitions of appropriate response.Less
This book places tipping points in their scientific, economic,
governmental, creative, and spiritual contexts. It seeks to offer a comprehensive set of
interpretations on the meaning and application of tipping points. Its contribution focuses on the
various characterisations and metaphors of tipping points, on the scope for anticipating their
onset, the capacity for societal resilience in the face of their impending arrival, and for better
ways of communicating and preparing societies, economies, and governments for accommodating them,
and hence to turn them into responses which buffer and better human well-being. Above all, the
possibility of preparing society for creative and benign ‘tips’ is a unifying theme. The conclusion
is sombre but not without hope. Thresholds of profound change can combine earth system-based
relatively abrupt shifts with human-caused alterations of these disturbed patterns which, coupled
together, produce more rapid onsets and greater tensions and stresses for governments and economies,
as well as socially unequal societies. There is still time to predict and address these thresholds
but too much delay will make the task of accommodation very difficult to achieve with relevant-scale
community support. There are many examples of adaptive resilience throughout the world. These should
be identified, supported, and emulated according to cultural acceptance and emerging economic
realities. But there is no guarantee that the necessary adjustments can be made in time, as emerging
patterns of outlook and governance do not appear to be conducive to manage the very awkward
transitions of appropriate response.
Joe Cribb and Georgina Herrmann (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263846
- eISBN:
- 9780191734113
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263846.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Asian and Middle Eastern History: BCE to 500CE
This is a study of the history, archaeology, and numismatics of Central Asia, an area of great significance for our understanding of the ancient and early medieval world. This vast, land-locked ...
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This is a study of the history, archaeology, and numismatics of Central Asia, an area of great significance for our understanding of the ancient and early medieval world. This vast, land-locked region, with its extreme continental climate, was a centre of civilization with great metropolises. Its cosmopolitan population followed different religions (Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Buddhism), and traded extensively with China, India, the Middle East, and Europe. The millennium from the overthrow of the first world empire of Achaemenian Persians by Alexander the Great to the arrival of the Arabs and Islam was a period of considerable change and conflict. The book focuses on investigations in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, providing a complex analysis of the symbiosis between the city life based on oases, and the nomadic peoples grazing their animals in the surrounding semi-deserts. Other topics include the influence of the Greek colonists on military architecture, and the major impact of the Great Kushans on the spread of Buddhism and on the development of the Central Asian metropolis. Although written documents rarely survive, coinage has provided essential evidence for the political and cultural history of the region.Less
This is a study of the history, archaeology, and numismatics of Central Asia, an area of great significance for our understanding of the ancient and early medieval world. This vast, land-locked region, with its extreme continental climate, was a centre of civilization with great metropolises. Its cosmopolitan population followed different religions (Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Buddhism), and traded extensively with China, India, the Middle East, and Europe. The millennium from the overthrow of the first world empire of Achaemenian Persians by Alexander the Great to the arrival of the Arabs and Islam was a period of considerable change and conflict. The book focuses on investigations in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, providing a complex analysis of the symbiosis between the city life based on oases, and the nomadic peoples grazing their animals in the surrounding semi-deserts. Other topics include the influence of the Greek colonists on military architecture, and the major impact of the Great Kushans on the spread of Buddhism and on the development of the Central Asian metropolis. Although written documents rarely survive, coinage has provided essential evidence for the political and cultural history of the region.
Matthew Hilton and James McKay (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197264829
- eISBN:
- 9780191754036
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264829.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This book provides the historical background to the rise of the Big Society, surveying the history of voluntarism over the last century. Politicians and commentators have long bemoaned the supposed ...
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This book provides the historical background to the rise of the Big Society, surveying the history of voluntarism over the last century. Politicians and commentators have long bemoaned the supposed decline of civic life, fretting about its health and its future. In fact, the real story of voluntarism over the last hundred years has not been decline, but constant evolution and change. Whether we use the terms charity, philanthropy, civil society, non-governmental organisations, the third sector or the Big Society, voluntary endeavour is one of the most vibrant and dynamic areas of British public life. The scholars featured in this collection show how the voluntary sector's role in society, and its relationship with the state, has constantly adapted to its surroundings. Volumtary groups have raised new agendas, tackled old problems in new ways, acted as alternatives to statutory provision and as catalysts for further government action. They have emerged out of citizens' concerns, independent of government, and yet have remained willing to work with politicians of all persuasions. By surveying the sheer extent and diversity of the sector since the start of the First World War, the book demonstrates that voluntarism not only continues to thrive, but is also far larger than any political agenda that may be imposed upon it.Less
This book provides the historical background to the rise of the Big Society, surveying the history of voluntarism over the last century. Politicians and commentators have long bemoaned the supposed decline of civic life, fretting about its health and its future. In fact, the real story of voluntarism over the last hundred years has not been decline, but constant evolution and change. Whether we use the terms charity, philanthropy, civil society, non-governmental organisations, the third sector or the Big Society, voluntary endeavour is one of the most vibrant and dynamic areas of British public life. The scholars featured in this collection show how the voluntary sector's role in society, and its relationship with the state, has constantly adapted to its surroundings. Volumtary groups have raised new agendas, tackled old problems in new ways, acted as alternatives to statutory provision and as catalysts for further government action. They have emerged out of citizens' concerns, independent of government, and yet have remained willing to work with politicians of all persuasions. By surveying the sheer extent and diversity of the sector since the start of the First World War, the book demonstrates that voluntarism not only continues to thrive, but is also far larger than any political agenda that may be imposed upon it.
Roland Enmarch and Verena M. Lepper (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265420
- eISBN:
- 9780191760471
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265420.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This book reviews the numerous developments in the theoretical framework of interpretation that have taken place over recent years. The application of more theoretically informed approaches to the ...
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This book reviews the numerous developments in the theoretical framework of interpretation that have taken place over recent years. The application of more theoretically informed approaches to the ancient literary corpus, and a more detailed analysis of context, form, and reception, have fundamentally challenged the interpretative paradigms that formerly held sway. No consensus on interpretative stance has yet emerged, and in this volume many of the foremost researchers in the field examine the overall state of work on the subject. The chapters in the present volume are intended to contribute to this development of different approaches in their application to real Egyptian texts. No single overarching theoretical framework underlies these contributions; instead they represent a multiplicity of perspectives. The range of chapters includes textual criticism; literary criticism; the social role of literature; reception theory; and the treatment of newly discovered literary texts. All contributions centre on the problems and potentials of studying Egyptian literature in a theoretically informed manner. Although major difficulties remain in interpreting a literature preserved only fragmentarily, this volume demonstrates the ongoing vitality of current Egyptological approaches to this problem. This volume also incorporates a broader cross-cultural and comparative element, providing overviews of connections and discontinuities with biblical, Classical, and Mesopotamian literatures, in order to address the comparative contexts of Ancient Egyptian literature.Less
This book reviews the numerous developments in the theoretical framework of interpretation that have taken place over recent years. The application of more theoretically informed approaches to the ancient literary corpus, and a more detailed analysis of context, form, and reception, have fundamentally challenged the interpretative paradigms that formerly held sway. No consensus on interpretative stance has yet emerged, and in this volume many of the foremost researchers in the field examine the overall state of work on the subject. The chapters in the present volume are intended to contribute to this development of different approaches in their application to real Egyptian texts. No single overarching theoretical framework underlies these contributions; instead they represent a multiplicity of perspectives. The range of chapters includes textual criticism; literary criticism; the social role of literature; reception theory; and the treatment of newly discovered literary texts. All contributions centre on the problems and potentials of studying Egyptian literature in a theoretically informed manner. Although major difficulties remain in interpreting a literature preserved only fragmentarily, this volume demonstrates the ongoing vitality of current Egyptological approaches to this problem. This volume also incorporates a broader cross-cultural and comparative element, providing overviews of connections and discontinuities with biblical, Classical, and Mesopotamian literatures, in order to address the comparative contexts of Ancient Egyptian literature.
James Graham-Campbell and Michael Ryan (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264508
- eISBN:
- 9780191734120
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264508.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
Although there has been much recent interest in the interaction of England and Ireland in the Viking Age, the links between the Anglo-Saxons and the Irish in the period before 800 have been much less ...
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Although there has been much recent interest in the interaction of England and Ireland in the Viking Age, the links between the Anglo-Saxons and the Irish in the period before 800 have been much less studied. This book provides an interdisciplinary assessment of these connections. The chapters range widely in their scope. Seven chapters look at issues of language and literature, legal traditions, and ecclesiastical history; a further ten consider the evidence of material culture, through art history and archaeology. This overview of the field of Anglo-Saxon/Irish relations will be of use to people interested in early medieval studies.Less
Although there has been much recent interest in the interaction of England and Ireland in the Viking Age, the links between the Anglo-Saxons and the Irish in the period before 800 have been much less studied. This book provides an interdisciplinary assessment of these connections. The chapters range widely in their scope. Seven chapters look at issues of language and literature, legal traditions, and ecclesiastical history; a further ten consider the evidence of material culture, through art history and archaeology. This overview of the field of Anglo-Saxon/Irish relations will be of use to people interested in early medieval studies.
T C Smout (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263303
- eISBN:
- 9780191734137
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263303.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
The Union of the Crowns in 1603 is the cornerstone of the modern British state, but relations between England and Scotland did not always run smoothly in the following centuries. This volume examines ...
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The Union of the Crowns in 1603 is the cornerstone of the modern British state, but relations between England and Scotland did not always run smoothly in the following centuries. This volume examines how the neighbouring British nations regarded each other from 1603 to 1900. Why did this union last when many others in Europe fell apart? How close did it come to unravelling? What were the strengths and tricks that preserved it? As aggregations of individuals, as economies, or as systems of law and politics, how did England and Scotland mesh? Political, economic, legal, intellectual and literary historians examine the first three centuries of Union, including the reception of James in the south, the Civil Wars, the background to parliamentary union in 1707, the spoils of Empire, and the Victorian climax. Together with its companion Anglo-Scottish Relations, from 1900 to Devolution and Beyond, the volume provides a vivid account of two nations, which have often differed, remained very distinct, yet achieved endurance in European terms.Less
The Union of the Crowns in 1603 is the cornerstone of the modern British state, but relations between England and Scotland did not always run smoothly in the following centuries. This volume examines how the neighbouring British nations regarded each other from 1603 to 1900. Why did this union last when many others in Europe fell apart? How close did it come to unravelling? What were the strengths and tricks that preserved it? As aggregations of individuals, as economies, or as systems of law and politics, how did England and Scotland mesh? Political, economic, legal, intellectual and literary historians examine the first three centuries of Union, including the reception of James in the south, the Civil Wars, the background to parliamentary union in 1707, the spoils of Empire, and the Victorian climax. Together with its companion Anglo-Scottish Relations, from 1900 to Devolution and Beyond, the volume provides a vivid account of two nations, which have often differed, remained very distinct, yet achieved endurance in European terms.
William L Miller (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263310
- eISBN:
- 9780191734144
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263310.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
The chapters in this book trace the changing relationship between Scotland and England following the unifying reign of Queen Victoria, through the debates over devolution, and into a future where the ...
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The chapters in this book trace the changing relationship between Scotland and England following the unifying reign of Queen Victoria, through the debates over devolution, and into a future where the Union will be under continuing pressure to evolve. Historians, social scientists and lawyers investigate the personal, social, financial and constitutional tensions between the Scots and the English, both before and after devolution, and ask have the Scots and the English been driven apart, or brought more closely together by this reconstruction of the Union?Less
The chapters in this book trace the changing relationship between Scotland and England following the unifying reign of Queen Victoria, through the debates over devolution, and into a future where the Union will be under continuing pressure to evolve. Historians, social scientists and lawyers investigate the personal, social, financial and constitutional tensions between the Scots and the English, both before and after devolution, and ask have the Scots and the English been driven apart, or brought more closely together by this reconstruction of the Union?
Ben Wellings and Andrew Mycock (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780197266618
- eISBN:
- 9780191896064
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266618.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
This volume provides the first detailed analyses of the ‘Anglosphere’ – a re-imagined transnational community of the English-speaking peoples – which came to international prominence in the wake of ...
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This volume provides the first detailed analyses of the ‘Anglosphere’ – a re-imagined transnational community of the English-speaking peoples – which came to international prominence in the wake of Brexit. It brings together leading international experts to examine the Anglosphere’s historical links to the British Empire. It interprets the shifting political and economic fortunes of this contested idea, the locations where it is enacted and how it continues to inform transnational identities and politics across the English-speaking world today. The volume reveals that although the Anglosphere is founded on a common view of the past, its advocates seek a shared future which is never fully attained. The volume examines the claims of its proponents regarding the Anglosphere's continuities and commonalities, and argues that its post-Brexit potential is in fact undermined by very real historical and contemporary differences. Ultimately, the Anglosphere is an unsuitable vehicle for ‘Global Britain’ and for a reordering of the West in international relations. This book will appeal to those interested in the causes and consequences of Brexit, right-wing politics in the UK, the USA, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, and the shifting international relations of the twenty-first century.Less
This volume provides the first detailed analyses of the ‘Anglosphere’ – a re-imagined transnational community of the English-speaking peoples – which came to international prominence in the wake of Brexit. It brings together leading international experts to examine the Anglosphere’s historical links to the British Empire. It interprets the shifting political and economic fortunes of this contested idea, the locations where it is enacted and how it continues to inform transnational identities and politics across the English-speaking world today. The volume reveals that although the Anglosphere is founded on a common view of the past, its advocates seek a shared future which is never fully attained. The volume examines the claims of its proponents regarding the Anglosphere's continuities and commonalities, and argues that its post-Brexit potential is in fact undermined by very real historical and contemporary differences. Ultimately, the Anglosphere is an unsuitable vehicle for ‘Global Britain’ and for a reordering of the West in international relations. This book will appeal to those interested in the causes and consequences of Brexit, right-wing politics in the UK, the USA, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, and the shifting international relations of the twenty-first century.
Tony Crook
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264003
- eISBN:
- 9780191734151
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264003.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Global
What is the nature of knowledge? Anthropology imagines it possible to divide or separate social and analytical relations, whereby knowledge travels between persons as a thing. And yet, Bolivip ...
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What is the nature of knowledge? Anthropology imagines it possible to divide or separate social and analytical relations, whereby knowledge travels between persons as a thing. And yet, Bolivip imagines knowledge as the bodily resources or parts of a person that can be extended or combined with others. This methodological exchange is modelled on a moment from Bolivip – an exchange of skin whereby knowledge is returned in respect of prior nurture and care given, and two people become encompassed by one skin. The Min area of Papua New Guinea has proven to be one of the most enigmatic cultures in anthropological experience. But rather than accept this resistance to analysis as a problem of Melanesian secrecy, this book suggests that archaic notions of anthropological knowledge have been the problem all along. Taking up the ‘Min problem’ head on, it suggests a solution to the impasse. The argument works through alternating chapters: an imagistic ethnography of Bolivip describes how arboreal and horticultural metaphors motivate the growth of persons and plants by circulating bodily resources through others. Knowledge here comes from those who contribute to conception, and is withheld until a person is capable of bearing it. These images are used to provide new readings of classic Melanesianist texts – Mead, Bateson, and Fortune – substituting theoretical ideas for intimate relations; Weiner and Strathern's own experiments with anthropology modelled on Melanesia; and Barth's reading of secrecy amongst the Min.Less
What is the nature of knowledge? Anthropology imagines it possible to divide or separate social and analytical relations, whereby knowledge travels between persons as a thing. And yet, Bolivip imagines knowledge as the bodily resources or parts of a person that can be extended or combined with others. This methodological exchange is modelled on a moment from Bolivip – an exchange of skin whereby knowledge is returned in respect of prior nurture and care given, and two people become encompassed by one skin. The Min area of Papua New Guinea has proven to be one of the most enigmatic cultures in anthropological experience. But rather than accept this resistance to analysis as a problem of Melanesian secrecy, this book suggests that archaic notions of anthropological knowledge have been the problem all along. Taking up the ‘Min problem’ head on, it suggests a solution to the impasse. The argument works through alternating chapters: an imagistic ethnography of Bolivip describes how arboreal and horticultural metaphors motivate the growth of persons and plants by circulating bodily resources through others. Knowledge here comes from those who contribute to conception, and is withheld until a person is capable of bearing it. These images are used to provide new readings of classic Melanesianist texts – Mead, Bateson, and Fortune – substituting theoretical ideas for intimate relations; Weiner and Strathern's own experiments with anthropology modelled on Melanesia; and Barth's reading of secrecy amongst the Min.
Paul Heggarty and David Beresford-Jones (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197265031
- eISBN:
- 9780191754142
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265031.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, American History: pre-Columbian BCE to 500CE
The Andes are of unquestioned significance to the human story: a cradle of agriculture and of ‘pristine’ civilisation with a pedigree of millennia. The Incas were but the culmination of a succession ...
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The Andes are of unquestioned significance to the human story: a cradle of agriculture and of ‘pristine’ civilisation with a pedigree of millennia. The Incas were but the culmination of a succession of civilisations that rose and fell to leave one of the richest archaeological records on Earth. By no coincidence, the Andes are home also to our greatest surviving link to the speech of the New World before European conquest: the Quechua language family. For linguists, the native tongues of the Andes make for another rich seam of data on origins, expansions, and reversals throughout prehistory. Historians and anthropologists, meanwhile, negotiate many pitfalls to interpret the conflicting mytho-histories of the Andes, recorded for us only through the distorting prism of the conquistadors' world-view. Each of these disciplines opens up its own partial window on the past: very different perspectives, to be sure, but all the more complementary for it. Frustratingly though, specialists in each field have all too long proceeded largely in ignorance of great strides being taken in the others. This book brings together a cast of scholars from each discipline, converging their disparate perspectives into a true cross-disciplinary focus, to weave together a coherent account of what was, after all, one and the same prehistory. The result, instructive also far beyond the Andes, is a case-study in the pursuit of a more holistic vision of the human past.Less
The Andes are of unquestioned significance to the human story: a cradle of agriculture and of ‘pristine’ civilisation with a pedigree of millennia. The Incas were but the culmination of a succession of civilisations that rose and fell to leave one of the richest archaeological records on Earth. By no coincidence, the Andes are home also to our greatest surviving link to the speech of the New World before European conquest: the Quechua language family. For linguists, the native tongues of the Andes make for another rich seam of data on origins, expansions, and reversals throughout prehistory. Historians and anthropologists, meanwhile, negotiate many pitfalls to interpret the conflicting mytho-histories of the Andes, recorded for us only through the distorting prism of the conquistadors' world-view. Each of these disciplines opens up its own partial window on the past: very different perspectives, to be sure, but all the more complementary for it. Frustratingly though, specialists in each field have all too long proceeded largely in ignorance of great strides being taken in the others. This book brings together a cast of scholars from each discipline, converging their disparate perspectives into a true cross-disciplinary focus, to weave together a coherent account of what was, after all, one and the same prehistory. The result, instructive also far beyond the Andes, is a case-study in the pursuit of a more holistic vision of the human past.
Kate Peters, Alexandra Walsham, and Liesbeth Corens (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780197266250
- eISBN:
- 9780191869181
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266250.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
This volume investigates the relationship between archives and information in the early modern world. It explores how the physical documentation that proliferated on an unprecedented scale between ...
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This volume investigates the relationship between archives and information in the early modern world. It explores how the physical documentation that proliferated on an unprecedented scale between the 16th and 18th centuries was managed in the context of wider innovations in the sphere of communication and of significant upheaval and change. The chapters assess how archives were implicated in patterns of statecraft and scrutinise critical issues of secrecy and publicity, access and concealment. They analyse the interconnections between documentation and geographical distance, probing the part played by record-keeping in administration, governance, and justice, as well as its links with trade, commerce, education, evangelism, and piety. Alive to how the contents of archives were organised and filed, the contributors place paper technologies and physical repositories under the microscope. Extending beyond the framework of formal institutions to the family, household, and sect, this volume offers fresh insight into the possibilities and constraints of political participation and the nature of human agency. It deepens our understanding of the role of archives in the construction and preservation of knowledge and the exercise of power in its broadest sense. Above all, it calls for greater dialogue and creative collaboration to breach the lingering disciplinary divide between historians and archival scientists.Less
This volume investigates the relationship between archives and information in the early modern world. It explores how the physical documentation that proliferated on an unprecedented scale between the 16th and 18th centuries was managed in the context of wider innovations in the sphere of communication and of significant upheaval and change. The chapters assess how archives were implicated in patterns of statecraft and scrutinise critical issues of secrecy and publicity, access and concealment. They analyse the interconnections between documentation and geographical distance, probing the part played by record-keeping in administration, governance, and justice, as well as its links with trade, commerce, education, evangelism, and piety. Alive to how the contents of archives were organised and filed, the contributors place paper technologies and physical repositories under the microscope. Extending beyond the framework of formal institutions to the family, household, and sect, this volume offers fresh insight into the possibilities and constraints of political participation and the nature of human agency. It deepens our understanding of the role of archives in the construction and preservation of knowledge and the exercise of power in its broadest sense. Above all, it calls for greater dialogue and creative collaboration to breach the lingering disciplinary divide between historians and archival scientists.
Jeremy Butterfield (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263464
- eISBN:
- 9780191734748
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263464.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
These nine chapters, commissioned on the initiative of the Philosophy section of the British Academy, address fundamental questions about time in philosophy, physics, linguistics, and psychology. Are ...
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These nine chapters, commissioned on the initiative of the Philosophy section of the British Academy, address fundamental questions about time in philosophy, physics, linguistics, and psychology. Are there facts about the future? Could we affect the past? Physics, general relativity and quantum theory give contradictory treatments of time. So in the search for a theory of quantum gravity, which should give way: general relativity or quantum theory? In linguistics and psychology, how does our language represent time, and how do our minds keep track of it?Less
These nine chapters, commissioned on the initiative of the Philosophy section of the British Academy, address fundamental questions about time in philosophy, physics, linguistics, and psychology. Are there facts about the future? Could we affect the past? Physics, general relativity and quantum theory give contradictory treatments of time. So in the search for a theory of quantum gravity, which should give way: general relativity or quantum theory? In linguistics and psychology, how does our language represent time, and how do our minds keep track of it?
Jane E. Everson, Andrew Hiscock, and Stefano Jossa (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780197266502
- eISBN:
- 9780191884221
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266502.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
The volume assesses the changing impact on English culture over 500 years of Ariosto’s poem, the Orlando Furioso, first published in Italy in 1516, and subsequently in an expanded version in 1532. ...
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The volume assesses the changing impact on English culture over 500 years of Ariosto’s poem, the Orlando Furioso, first published in Italy in 1516, and subsequently in an expanded version in 1532. Individual chapters address the recurring presence of Ariosto’s poem in English literature, but also the multimedial nature of the transmission of the Furioso into English culture: through the visual arts, theatre, music and spectacle to video games and the internet, as well as through often heated critical debates. The introduction provides an overview of the history of criticism and interpretation of the Furioso in England. Within the four main sections – entitled: Before reading – the image; From the Elizabethans to the Enlightenment; Gothic and Romantic Ariosto; Text and translation in the modern era – individual studies explore key moments in the reception of the poem into English culture: the adaptation and translation of the poem among the Elizabethans; Milton’s detailed appreciation of the work; and the ambivalent attitudes of eighteenth-century writers and critics; the influence of illustrations to the poem; and its transformation into opera for the English stage. Emphasis is also placed on: the dynamic responses of Romantic writers to Ariosto; the crucial work of editors and translators in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; and the stimulating adaptations and rewritings by modern authors. The volume concludes with a comprehensive bibliography.Less
The volume assesses the changing impact on English culture over 500 years of Ariosto’s poem, the Orlando Furioso, first published in Italy in 1516, and subsequently in an expanded version in 1532. Individual chapters address the recurring presence of Ariosto’s poem in English literature, but also the multimedial nature of the transmission of the Furioso into English culture: through the visual arts, theatre, music and spectacle to video games and the internet, as well as through often heated critical debates. The introduction provides an overview of the history of criticism and interpretation of the Furioso in England. Within the four main sections – entitled: Before reading – the image; From the Elizabethans to the Enlightenment; Gothic and Romantic Ariosto; Text and translation in the modern era – individual studies explore key moments in the reception of the poem into English culture: the adaptation and translation of the poem among the Elizabethans; Milton’s detailed appreciation of the work; and the ambivalent attitudes of eighteenth-century writers and critics; the influence of illustrations to the poem; and its transformation into opera for the English stage. Emphasis is also placed on: the dynamic responses of Romantic writers to Ariosto; the crucial work of editors and translators in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; and the stimulating adaptations and rewritings by modern authors. The volume concludes with a comprehensive bibliography.
Amira K. Bennison (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780197265697
- eISBN:
- 9780191771897
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265697.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Middle East History
This volume explores how rulers in medieval Iberia and the Maghrib presented their rule and what strategies they adopted to persuade their subjects of their legitimacy. It focuses on the Naṣrids of ...
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This volume explores how rulers in medieval Iberia and the Maghrib presented their rule and what strategies they adopted to persuade their subjects of their legitimacy. It focuses on the Naṣrids of Granada and the Marīnids of Morocco who both ruled from the mid-thirteenth to the later fifteenth century. One of the book's main arguments is that the legitimating strategies of these monarchs developed out of a common political culture that straddled the straits of Gibraltar. This culture was mediated by constant transfers of people, ideas and commodities across the straits and a political historiography in which deliberate parallels and comparisons were drawn between Iberia and North Africa. The book challenges a tendency to see the Iberian and North African cultural and political spheres as inherently different and, implicitly, as precursors to later European and African identities. While several chapters in the volume do flag up contrasts in practice, they also highlight the structural similarities in the Naṣrid and Marīnid approach to legitimation in this period. The volume is divided into several sections, each of which approaches the theme of legitimation from a separate angle. The first section contains an introduction to the theme as well as analyses of the material and intellectual background to discourses of legitimation. The next section focuses on rhetorical bids for legitimacy such as the deployment of prestigious genealogies, the use of religiopolitical titles, and other forms of propaganda. That is followed by a detailed look at ceremonial and the calculated patronage of religious festivals by rulers. A final section grapples with the problem of legitimation outside the environs of the city, among illiterate and frequently armed populations.Less
This volume explores how rulers in medieval Iberia and the Maghrib presented their rule and what strategies they adopted to persuade their subjects of their legitimacy. It focuses on the Naṣrids of Granada and the Marīnids of Morocco who both ruled from the mid-thirteenth to the later fifteenth century. One of the book's main arguments is that the legitimating strategies of these monarchs developed out of a common political culture that straddled the straits of Gibraltar. This culture was mediated by constant transfers of people, ideas and commodities across the straits and a political historiography in which deliberate parallels and comparisons were drawn between Iberia and North Africa. The book challenges a tendency to see the Iberian and North African cultural and political spheres as inherently different and, implicitly, as precursors to later European and African identities. While several chapters in the volume do flag up contrasts in practice, they also highlight the structural similarities in the Naṣrid and Marīnid approach to legitimation in this period. The volume is divided into several sections, each of which approaches the theme of legitimation from a separate angle. The first section contains an introduction to the theme as well as analyses of the material and intellectual background to discourses of legitimation. The next section focuses on rhetorical bids for legitimacy such as the deployment of prestigious genealogies, the use of religiopolitical titles, and other forms of propaganda. That is followed by a detailed look at ceremonial and the calculated patronage of religious festivals by rulers. A final section grapples with the problem of legitimation outside the environs of the city, among illiterate and frequently armed populations.
Tobias Reinhardt, Michael Lapidge, and J. N. Adams (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263327
- eISBN:
- 9780191734168
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263327.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Twenty chapters from two often-dissociated areas of Latin studies, classical and medieval Latin, examine continuities and developments in the language of Latin prose from its emergence to the twelfth ...
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Twenty chapters from two often-dissociated areas of Latin studies, classical and medieval Latin, examine continuities and developments in the language of Latin prose from its emergence to the twelfth century. Language is not understood in a narrowly philological or linguistic sense, but as encompassing the literary exploitation of linguistic effects and the influence of formal rhetoric on prose. Key themes explored throughout this book are the use of poetic diction in prose, archaism, sentence structure, and bilingualism. Chapters cover a comprehensive range of material including studies of individual works, groups of authors such as the Republican historians, prose genres such as the ancient novel or medieval biography, and linguistic topics such as the use of connectives in archaic Latin or prose rhythm in medieval Latin.Less
Twenty chapters from two often-dissociated areas of Latin studies, classical and medieval Latin, examine continuities and developments in the language of Latin prose from its emergence to the twelfth century. Language is not understood in a narrowly philological or linguistic sense, but as encompassing the literary exploitation of linguistic effects and the influence of formal rhetoric on prose. Key themes explored throughout this book are the use of poetic diction in prose, archaism, sentence structure, and bilingualism. Chapters cover a comprehensive range of material including studies of individual works, groups of authors such as the Republican historians, prose genres such as the ancient novel or medieval biography, and linguistic topics such as the use of connectives in archaic Latin or prose rhythm in medieval Latin.
Richard Swinburne (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263419
- eISBN:
- 9780191734175
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263419.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Logic/Philosophy of Mathematics
Bayes' theorem is a tool for assessing how probable evidence makes some hypothesis. The papers in this book consider the worth and applicability of the theorem. The book sets out the philosophical ...
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Bayes' theorem is a tool for assessing how probable evidence makes some hypothesis. The papers in this book consider the worth and applicability of the theorem. The book sets out the philosophical issues: Elliott Sober argues that there are other criteria for assessing hypotheses; Colin Howson, Philip Dawid, and John Earman consider how the theorem can be used in statistical science, in weighing evidence in criminal trials, and in assessing evidence for the occurrence of miracles; and David Miller argues for the worth of the probability calculus as a tool for measuring propensities in nature rather than the strength of evidence. The book ends with the original paper containing the theorem, presented to the Royal Society in 1763.Less
Bayes' theorem is a tool for assessing how probable evidence makes some hypothesis. The papers in this book consider the worth and applicability of the theorem. The book sets out the philosophical issues: Elliott Sober argues that there are other criteria for assessing hypotheses; Colin Howson, Philip Dawid, and John Earman consider how the theorem can be used in statistical science, in weighing evidence in criminal trials, and in assessing evidence for the occurrence of miracles; and David Miller argues for the worth of the probability calculus as a tool for measuring propensities in nature rather than the strength of evidence. The book ends with the original paper containing the theorem, presented to the Royal Society in 1763.
Felicitas Becker
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264270
- eISBN:
- 9780191734182
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264270.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
This book looks at the Muslims in Mainland Tanzania, as well as what people in Southeast Tanzania understood by Islam, or by being Muslim, and what they sought to attain by becoming Muslim. This ...
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This book looks at the Muslims in Mainland Tanzania, as well as what people in Southeast Tanzania understood by Islam, or by being Muslim, and what they sought to attain by becoming Muslim. This question may seem contrived: the personal reasons why a set of people, most of whom are now dead, changed their religious allegiance are unrecoverable. The most fundamental problem lies with the timing of the expansion of Islam. It is clearly shown that certain challenges and processes recurred over time in different guises.Less
This book looks at the Muslims in Mainland Tanzania, as well as what people in Southeast Tanzania understood by Islam, or by being Muslim, and what they sought to attain by becoming Muslim. This question may seem contrived: the personal reasons why a set of people, most of whom are now dead, changed their religious allegiance are unrecoverable. The most fundamental problem lies with the timing of the expansion of Islam. It is clearly shown that certain challenges and processes recurred over time in different guises.
Shane Doyle
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265338
- eISBN:
- 9780191760488
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265338.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, African Cultural Anthropology
This book addresses two of the most important questions in modern African history: the causes of rapid population growth, and the origins of the AIDS pandemic. It examines three societies on the ...
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This book addresses two of the most important questions in modern African history: the causes of rapid population growth, and the origins of the AIDS pandemic. It examines three societies on the Uganda–Tanzania border whose distinctive histories shed new light on both of these phenomena. This was the region where HIV in Africa first became a mass rural epidemic, and also where HIV infection rates first began to decline significantly. The book argues that only by analysing the long history of changes in sexual behaviour and attitudes can the shape of Africa's regional epidemics be fully understood. It traces the emergence of the sexual culture which permitted HIV to spread so quickly during the late 1970s and 1980s back to the middle decades of the twentieth century, a period when new patterns of socialization and sexual networking became established. The case studies examined in this book also provide new insights into the relationship between economic and social development and trends in fertility and mortality during the twentieth century. These three societies experienced the onset of rapid demographic growth at different moments and for different reasons, but in each case study area the key mechanisms appear to have been a decline in child mortality, a shortening of birth intervals, and a marked decline in primary and secondary infertility.Less
This book addresses two of the most important questions in modern African history: the causes of rapid population growth, and the origins of the AIDS pandemic. It examines three societies on the Uganda–Tanzania border whose distinctive histories shed new light on both of these phenomena. This was the region where HIV in Africa first became a mass rural epidemic, and also where HIV infection rates first began to decline significantly. The book argues that only by analysing the long history of changes in sexual behaviour and attitudes can the shape of Africa's regional epidemics be fully understood. It traces the emergence of the sexual culture which permitted HIV to spread so quickly during the late 1970s and 1980s back to the middle decades of the twentieth century, a period when new patterns of socialization and sexual networking became established. The case studies examined in this book also provide new insights into the relationship between economic and social development and trends in fertility and mortality during the twentieth century. These three societies experienced the onset of rapid demographic growth at different moments and for different reasons, but in each case study area the key mechanisms appear to have been a decline in child mortality, a shortening of birth intervals, and a marked decline in primary and secondary infertility.
Mandy Sadan
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265550
- eISBN:
- 9780191760341
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265550.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
Since independence in 1948, Burma has suffered from many internal conflicts. One of the longest of these has been in the Kachin State, in the north of the country where Burma has borders with India ...
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Since independence in 1948, Burma has suffered from many internal conflicts. One of the longest of these has been in the Kachin State, in the north of the country where Burma has borders with India to the west and China to the east. This book explores the origins of the armed movement that started in 1961 and considers why it has continued for so long. The book places the problems that have led to hostilities between the political heartland of Burma and one of its most important peripheries in a longer perspective than usual. It explains how the experience of globalisation and international geopolitics from the late eighteenth century onwards produced the local politics of exclusion and resistance. It also uses detailed ethnographic research to explore the social and cultural dynamics of Kachin ethno-nationalism, providing a rich analysis that goes beyond the purely political. This analysis also provides new insights on the work of Edmund Leach and recent representations of Zomia proposed by James C. Scott. The research draws upon an extensive range of sources, including archival materials in Jinghpaw and an extensive study of ritual and ritual language. Making a wide variety of cross-disciplinary observations, it explains in depth and breadth how a region such as the Kachin State came into being. When combined with detailed local insights into how these experiences contributed to the historical development of modern Kachin ethno-nationalism, the book encourages new ways of thinking about the Kachin region and its history of armed resistance.Less
Since independence in 1948, Burma has suffered from many internal conflicts. One of the longest of these has been in the Kachin State, in the north of the country where Burma has borders with India to the west and China to the east. This book explores the origins of the armed movement that started in 1961 and considers why it has continued for so long. The book places the problems that have led to hostilities between the political heartland of Burma and one of its most important peripheries in a longer perspective than usual. It explains how the experience of globalisation and international geopolitics from the late eighteenth century onwards produced the local politics of exclusion and resistance. It also uses detailed ethnographic research to explore the social and cultural dynamics of Kachin ethno-nationalism, providing a rich analysis that goes beyond the purely political. This analysis also provides new insights on the work of Edmund Leach and recent representations of Zomia proposed by James C. Scott. The research draws upon an extensive range of sources, including archival materials in Jinghpaw and an extensive study of ritual and ritual language. Making a wide variety of cross-disciplinary observations, it explains in depth and breadth how a region such as the Kachin State came into being. When combined with detailed local insights into how these experiences contributed to the historical development of modern Kachin ethno-nationalism, the book encourages new ways of thinking about the Kachin region and its history of armed resistance.
Kathryn Gleadle
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264492
- eISBN:
- 9780191734274
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264492.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This volume provides a comprehensive analysis of women's involvement in British political culture in the first half of the nineteenth century. It is based on extensive archival research, but also ...
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This volume provides a comprehensive analysis of women's involvement in British political culture in the first half of the nineteenth century. It is based on extensive archival research, but also engages with recent feminist theories in the social sciences, such as psychology and sociology. The volume looks at both rural and urban experiences of politics. The author throws new light on women's political activities and challenges many traditional assumptions about contemporary politics. The book gives fresh insights into the Reform Act of 1832, pays attention to continuities in political practice and ideas, and brings focus to the primary significance of parish politics within the day-to-day activities of the middling and gentry classes.Less
This volume provides a comprehensive analysis of women's involvement in British political culture in the first half of the nineteenth century. It is based on extensive archival research, but also engages with recent feminist theories in the social sciences, such as psychology and sociology. The volume looks at both rural and urban experiences of politics. The author throws new light on women's political activities and challenges many traditional assumptions about contemporary politics. The book gives fresh insights into the Reform Act of 1832, pays attention to continuities in political practice and ideas, and brings focus to the primary significance of parish politics within the day-to-day activities of the middling and gentry classes.
Insane Acquaintances
A Material History of the Bible, England 1200-1553
Migrants in Medieval England, c. 500-c. 1500
Village Institutions in Egypt in the Roman to Early Arab Periods
Early Farmers
Endangered Languages
Unequal Attainments
When the Party’s Over
