Archives Of Empire Research Articles

Negotiating Collective Land Rights in the Andes: Insights from contrasting trajectories on the Bolivian-Chilean altiplano, 1880s–1930s

Abstract This article develops a historicising and comparative perspective on the transformation, formalisation, and negotiation of collective land rights in the Andean Highlands. It discusses and compares the trajectories of two highland areas situated across the Bolivian-Chilean border within the context of globally and nationally shifting frontiers of market and state integration since the late 19th century. The case studies demonstrate a striking divergence in the context of the breakthrough of liberal land legislation in Latin America. Communities in the Bolivian province of Carangas were able to resist privatising pressures, while communities of the Arica highlands, once annexed and incorporated in Chile after the War of the Pacific, adjusted to a more homogeneous regime that left little room for communal land relations. Despite the stark contrasts, this article questions simplistic dichotomic framings of the unchallenged “survival” of communal land rights in Bolivia versus complete “disappearance” of communal arrangements in Chile. Empirical archival and ethnographic data point to the social reconfigurations and creative strategies through which the community as a collective legal entity and daily practice transformed. The article sheds light on the causes and longer-term implications of these regional trajectories within the context of a globalising land regime.

Domestic Archives of Empire: Photographing Burma and Reconstructing British Imperialism for the Postwar Moment

This article examines how photography documenting the military campaign in Burma was mobilized in efforts to reconstruct the image and idea of the British Empire at the end of the Second World War. It analyses a selection of popular publications which provided visual instruction for white Anglophone audiences, promoting continuing British imperialism after the Allied victory. These publications were intended to be kept for posterity, acting as ‘domestic archives of empire’ for Anglophone audiences across the globe. Such publications represented the empire at war and in peacetime, supposedly fit for the postwar moment. At the time of their publication, these ‘domestic archives of empire’ exhorted white Anglophone readers to view the British Empire as embodying a liberal and tolerant mission. Today, they offer insights into a vernacular history of empire on the verge of fragmentation, presaging the challenges of reconstruction and decolonization and the development of imperial nostalgia.

Editorial Policy

Editorial Policy

Editorial Policy

Editorial Policy

The Funding of Higher Education: An Empirical Examination of the Cost of Education in Business Schools

In late 2020, Australian university funding was profoundly changed by the Higher Education Support Amendment (Job‐Ready Graduates and Supporting Regional and Remote Students) Act (hereafter ‘the Act’). The Act is based on separate funding of education and research and relies heavily on estimates of education costs that are controversial. The Act increased tuition fees for domestic business students by 30%. Using an empirical archival approach, this study examines three questions: (1) What are the costs of providing tertiary education to business students? (2) Does research intensity impact the costs of education? (3) Is there evidence consistent with a cross‐subsidy from education to non‐teaching activities, including research? Unfortunately, sufficiently granular data for Australia are not publicly available, so we use data from business schools in US public universities as a proxy. The sample is partitioned between institutions professing a primary focus on either education or research. Results reveal that undergraduate degrees cost, on average, around AUD3,000 per annum per full‐time student when regressed on university operating budgeted dollars, holding other factors constant; much lower than Australia's increased business tuition fee under the Act. Significant differences for undergraduate, master, and doctoral education costs exist between the education‐ and research‐focused sub‐samples. Master degrees are around triple undergraduate costs, on average. Both research (publications) and research training (doctoral degrees) are high cost, with ‘elite’ publications much more costly than other scholarly publications. We conclude that education costs are impacted by research intensity and that opportunities to cross‐subsidize non‐teaching activities exist.

Coercive, normative, and mimetic isomorphisms as drivers of corporate tax disclosure

PurposeInternational Accounting Standard (IAS) 12 requires the disclosure of a tax reconciliation (TR). The purpose of the TR is to explain the differences between the corporate effective tax expense and the corporate theoretical tax expense. In this paper, the authors investigate which institutional pressures influence the level of disclosure of the TR.Design/methodology/approachThe study draws on an empirical archival approach in which the level of disclosure is first measured and then associated with institutional pressures. The sample comprises 120 companies listed on the Paris stock exchange, i.e. a highly institutionalized setting.FindingsThe findings show a wide variation in the level of disclosure of the TR across the sample and that all three types of isomorphism (coercive, normative and mimetic) are associated with disclosure.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper deals exclusively with TR given its importance to a wide range of users. Additional tax information available in annual reports, most of the time at an expert level, may be the subject of further research.Practical implicationsThe results have important implications for standard setters, regulators, and practitioners as the research outlines the institutional pressures at work in corporate reporting policies and pushes forward the debate on fiscal transparency.Originality/valueThis paper documents the influence of institutional pressures on the level of the TR disclosure at a country level. It contributes to the literature on corporate tax disclosure which mainly focuses on differences across countries. An innovativead hocindex is used to measure information completeness.

Accruals intensity and auditor choice

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the intensity of accruals and auditor industry specialization. It investigates whether a client firm’s accruals intensity is a factor associated with the firm being audited by an industry specialist auditor.Design/methodology/approachThis paper employs an empirical archival methodology using publicly available data. The sample consists of client firms that switched auditors from 2004 to 2014.FindingsThe results show that accruals intensity is positively associated with the choice of an industry specialist auditor, measured both at the national and the city levels. These findings imply that companies with high levels of accruals choose an industry specialist auditor to signal the quality of their accruals and to gain more credibility for their financial reporting.Originality/valueThis paper provides original empirical evidence of the association between accruals intensity and the choice of an industry specialist auditor. This link is new to the literature. Extant literature shows that firms with high levels of accruals are regarded as risky and suffer from reduced credibility in financial markets. This study contributes to the literature by showing that these firms choose an industry specialist auditor to alleviate investors’ credibility concerns about the high levels of accruals. These findings provide insightful information to audit firms, to managers of firms that inherently display high levels of accruals and to the capital markets participants in general.

Revisiting the effectiveness of the German accounting enforcement reforms: a replication study

In this paper, we replicate and extend the study “Economic Consequences of Accounting Enforcement Reforms: The Case of Germany” published by Ernstberger, Stich and Vogler (ESV) in the European Accounting Review in 2012. ESV (in Eur Account Rev 21(2):217–251, 2012) is, among others, widely cited for the evidence it provides on the weak but consistently positive effects of the German accounting enforcement reforms on earnings quality, stock liquidity and market valuation. The results were to be expected and are in line with the literature prior to 2012. More recent empirical archival and survey studies question these weak positive effects and, in particular, their persistence. Hence, we believe it is beneficial to provide further evidence on whether regulatory measures in the field of financial reporting show the intended “impact” and contribute to regulators’ objectives. As a first step, we replicate ESV (2012), and in a second step, we extend the analysis to a longer-term investigation period. While some of our findings are similar to ESV (2012), we are not able to provide consistent evidence for an increase in earnings quality, stock liquidity or market valuation.

Archives of empire

ABSTRACTSouth Africa has, in recent years, been witnessing the unraveling of narratives of collective being and becoming that are hinged around Apartheid as the singular institution of power to be overcome. In this paper I argue that while Apartheid has provided one of the enduring examples of racial exclusion in the twentieth century we need to think more carefully about histories of empire and their endurance in the present. I trace the archival grain of empire in the various projects of gentrification that have marked the landscape of South Africa’s major cities in recent years. I argue that the transformation of these spaces contains the palimpsestic traces of South Africa’s imperial histories and as such should compel us to take serious how what I call archives of empire continue to mark post-Apartheid spatiality and subjectivity. The #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall student movements began some important archaeological work around reading how we make sense of our contemporary struggles and predicaments and as such should be taken seriously as having staged theoretical interventions in our contemporary social and political landscape.

In the archives with Barbara Harlow

The author discusses in a personal vein her co-operative work with Barbara Harlow since their joint realisation, as teachers of literature, of the lack of knowledge students had of the brutalities of colonialism and occupation against which to read texts. She explains the origins, pedagogical motives and political vision behind the three volumes of historical documents that she co-edited with Barbara Harlow: Imperialism and Orientalism: a documentary sourcebook (Basil Blackwell, 1999); Archives of Empire, Volume I: from the East India Company to the Suez Canal (Duke University Press, 2003); Archives of Empire, Volume II: the scramble for Africa (Duke University Press, 2004).

Blind Warriors, Supercrips, and Techno‐Marvels: Challenging Depictions of Disability in Star Wars

Blind Warriors, Supercrips, and Techno-Marvels : Challenging Depictions of Disability in Star Wars

Adilcevaz Kazasının İlk Nüfus Sayımı (30 Rebiyülevvel 1252/15 Temmuz 1836)

19 th century, many improvements and changes in the Ottoman Empire has been experiencing. One of these changes is census. By the middle of the century with a census was conducted in the entire country. The first modern population census in Otoman Empire was made in 1831, Mahmut the 2nd’s era. These changes made throughout the Empire and the census, the state’s general population as well as the structure reveals important information on a local basis. About this article we have tried to make the presentation and evaluation in the Prime Ministry Otoman Empire Archives “ Van Eyaleti, Van Sancagi, Adilcevaz Kazasi Muslim Nufus Defteri ” Adilcevaz population Book, under number 2792’s. Information in the book, districtand villages have been taken under examination and area’s socio-economic state is discussed. The book register there are characteristics of people (long-haired, bearded, black bearded, grey bearded, naturally lacking bearded and tall), their ages and jobs.

Environmental liabilities and diversity in practice under international financial reporting standards

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to encourage accounting regulators to address diversity in practice in the reporting of environmental liabilities. When Canada changed to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in 2011, Canadian regulators asked the IFRS Interpretations Committee to interpret whether the discount rate to value environmental liabilities should be a risk-free discount rate. Old Canadian GAAP, and current US GAAP, allow for a higher discount rate, resulting in commensurately lower liabilities. International regulators refused to address this issue expecting no diversity in practice in Canada.Design/methodology/approachThe focus is on a sample of Canadian oil and gas and mining firms. These domestic industries play a major role internationally and have significant environmental liabilities. The method is empirical archival, tracking firm characteristics and discount rate choice on transition to IFRS.FindingsThere is significant diversity in practice. About one-third of the sample firms choose a higher discount rate, avoiding a major increase in environmental liabilities on transition to IFRS. The evidence suggests that these firms have relatively larger environmental liabilities and that the discount rate decision is a strategic choice.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample is based on one country and may only be reflecting local anomalies that have no broader implications.Practical implicationsDiversity in practice in accounting for environmental liabilities is not acceptable. Accounting regulators should act to create consistent and comparable reporting practice.Social implicationsFirms and managers facing larger environmental liabilities can choose to minimize environmental liabilities under IFRS, while it is the general public and society at large that bear the ultimate risk.Originality/valueThe paper pushes forward the debate on whether recognized environmental liabilities should reflect the interests of equity investors, or if other investors and stakeholders should be taken into account.

2793 NUMARALI AHLÂT KAZASI MÜSLİM NÜFUS DEFTERİ (30 REBİYÜLEVVEL 1252/15 TEMMUZ 1836)'NİN TANITIM VE DEĞERLENDİRMESİ

19 th century, many improvements and changes in the Ottoman Empire has been experiencing. One of these changes is census. By the middle of the century with a census was conducted in the entire country. The first modern population census in Otoman Empire was made in 1831, Mahmut the 2nd’s era. These changes made throughout the Empire and the census, the state’s general population as well as the structure reveals important information on a local basis. About this article we have tried to make the presentation and evaluation in the Prime Ministry Otoman Empire Archives “Van Eyaleti, Van Sancagi Ahlât Kazasi Muslim Nufus Defteri” Ahlât population Book, under number 2793’s.

Causal inference in empirical archival financial accounting research

This study discusses the challenges and opportunities of establishing causal inference in empirical archival financial accounting research. Causal inference requires identification of a theoretically predicted causal mechanism in a research setting optimized to avoid endogenous causes and using a suitable statistical inference strategy. After briefly describing potential research design strategies, I analyze the frequency of causal studies published in leading business and economics journals. I identify causal studies by their abstract including an explicit reference to their causal nature and find that they are significantly more common in the areas of economics and finance compared to other business-oriented research disciplines like accounting. Also, the extent to which research designs are optimized for causal inference differs significantly between causal empirical archival studies in the area of financial accounting and finance. I discuss potential reasons for this gap and make some suggestions on how the demand for and supply of well-designed causal studies in the area of empirical archival financial accounting research might be increased.

R. Michael Feener, Patrick Daly, and Anthony Reid, eds. Mapping the Acehnese Past . Leiden: KITLV Press, 2011, xvi+292p.

Mapping Acehnese Past R. MICHAEL FEENER, PATRICK DALY, and ANTHONY REID, eds. Leiden: KITLV Press, 2011, xvi+292p.One of underlying themes in this edited volume on Aceh is that fresh look at . . . archives suggests that new histories can be created (J. G. Taylor, p. 234), so each of articles presents a new history, a new production of knowledge, a new way of representing and looking at Aceh using old archival, historical sources that have previously already been written about from other angles. These include ancient history archaeological findings and investigations of ceramics and Muslim tombstones; Ottoman Empire's archives on friendship and collaboration between Acehnese sultans and Ottoman Empire; close readings from a fresh perspective of traditional Malay-Acehnese hikayat and indigenous oral traditions on prang sabil; art of royal letter writing by three Acehnese sultans from different periods; a very brief look at Portuguese archives; close reading and analyses of Dutch letters, VOC correspondence, notes, and gift exchanges with Acehnese sultans and orang kaya, and KITLV photographs. This book highlights cosmopolitanism and richness of Aceh's connections to outside world and is, according to editors, a book about Aceh as seen from perspectives. But there is an inconsistency: if it is a book by outsiders about outsider's perspectives on Aceh, then where does one place two articles by only two Acehnese in book, Teuku Iskandar and Amirul Hadi? Are they Acehnese outsiders?The most informative (with a fresh perspective), elegantly written, and profoundly critical papers in this book are those by Teuku Iskandar (Aceh as a crucible of Muslim-Malay literature), Ismail Hakki Goksoy (Ottoman-Aceh relations as documented in Turkish sources), Annabel Teh Gallop (Gold, silver and lapis lazuli: Royal letters from Aceh in seventeenth century), Ismail Hakki Kadi, A. C. S. Peacock and Annabel Teh Gallop (on Writing history: The Acehnese embassy to Istanbul, 1849-1852), and Jean Gelman Taylor (Aceh histories in KITLV images archive). Here is one example of something hilarious:The grand vizier's minutes suggest limitations of Ottoman bureaucracy's intelligence about political and administrative structure of Southeast Asia. He wrote that the place called Java is a sort of province of great island of implying that Ottomans did really consider Java as a province of Sumatra, as Acehnese mission claimed. (Kadi, Peacock and Gallop, p. 176)Annabel Teh Gallop examines an example of how artistically sophisticated and intellectually subtle Acehnese were in art of rhetoric:As with so many royal Malay epistles, this is a carefully crafted and extremely diplomatic letter, deploying both bombast and subtlety as judged appropriate to convey what is essentially a negative message. (Gallop, p. 116, describing content of Sultan Iskandar Thani's [r. 1636-1641] letter to Frederik Hendrik, Prince of Orange [1584-1647])Jean Taylor provides a fascinating unpacking of problem of power and inequality in field of history and historiography, in particular in use of photographs as tools of history:Consideration of what actually was photographed obliges us to recognize that photography is not an objective record of peoples, times and places. Photographs are subjected to manipulation through selection, like any other set of documents. They are staged records and products of fleeting relationships between photographed and photographer . . . . Specialists in colonial photography draw attention to social distance between viewer and viewed, and to process of othering. (J.G. Taylor, p. 201)These articles are riveting and fascinating to read, and a treasure trove of new insights and new knowledge into old sources that have already been interpreted by dozens of other interpreters. …

Revisiting the Imperial Archive: Jane Eyre, Wide Sargasso Sea , and the Decomposition of Englishness

Returning to the much-noted relationship between Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre and Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea , and noting the central role of architectural structures in both texts, this essay analyses the ways in which the later novel 'revisits' and 'reinhabits' its forerunner. It is argued that the symbolic architecture described by the texts is inseparable from the discursive practices of the 'imperial archive.' Following Derrida's analysis, however, 'archive' names not a consolidated synchronic signifying order but a series of 'consignations' which remain temporally unintegrated. Indeed, the archive works against its own principle of order in ways which are acted out by the structural 'decomposition' (and 'self-immolation') of Brontë's text, and further exacerbated by Rhys's revisiting of it. If Brontë's text performs the vicissitudes of the imperial (and patriarchal) archive, Rhys's offers an allegory of a postcolonial revisitation haunted by its own ambivalent relationship to the literary archives of empire.

Mau Mau in the High Court and the ‘Lost’ British Empire Archives: Colonial Conspiracy or Bureaucratic Bungle?

In April 2011, a landmark hearing before the High Court in London found that the British government had a case to answer concerning abuse and torture allegedly carried out by British officials in Kenya during the Mau Mau counter-insurgency. Prior to the hearing, it was revealed that the British government had removed some 1,500 ‘sensitive’ government files from Kenya at independence, many of these relating to alleged abuses carried our during the Emergency of the 1950s. This discovery then led directly to the revelation of a further tranche of 8,800 historical files relating to the decolonisation of 36 other former British colonies. This article explains the nature of the claims of torture and abuse made in the Kenya case in the High Court, and then describes the new evidence in the recently disclosed documents. The concluding section then discusses the Kenya case and the implications of the larger discovery of the ‘lost’ British Empire archive.

In Thrall to the Archives of Empire: Torchwood – ‘Children of Earth’

In this essay I am interested in ‘the archive’ as a practice or as a form of guardianship (‘spiritual as well as material’) and as a ‘governing force’ (in the terms that Foucault established and later developed by other writers). As Mike Featherstone has indicated, this involves understanding the archive as an ‘epistemological complex’ (Featherstone 2006: 591) – indicating that the archive provides a way of knowing, as well as a way in which things are known. More usefully still, Featherstone identifies this understanding of the archive specifically with the ideological ambitions of the ‘archives of Empire’:

Three Stories

Thwarted romances between Garrisoned American Soldiers and Young Filipinas, problems of translation in a multilingual contact zone, and the precarious masculine authority of the imperial agent irresistibly drawn to the mysterious women who surround him—these are the subjects of Frank R. Steward's short fiction about the American military occupation of the Philippines. But Steward's perspective as an African American military officer complicates efforts to interpret such familiar colonial scenarios. The stories' formal experimentation makes them a significant discovery in the archives of empire.