Intellectual Endeavor Research Articles

“Intellectual Silence” and Intellectual Endeavor in Medieval Slavia Orthodoxa

This survey of intellectual endeavor in medieval Slavia orthodoxa proposes a different way to think through the problem of the “intellectual silence of Old Rus′,” first set forth by Georges Florovsky and explored by George Fedotov, Francis Thomson, Simon Franklin, and now Donald Ostrowski. It examines the resources and opportunities for secondary schooling and their apparent outcomes in Kyivan Rus′ from the eleventh through the thirteenth century, among South Slavs on Mount Athos in the later fourteenth century, and at the Kirillo-Belozerskii (Kirillov) Monastery in northern Russia in the later fifteenth century. It concludes that intellectual endeavor is not necessarily bound to an international language of scholarship (e.g., Greek), one the one hand, or to a particular religious mentalité (e.g., that of the Western Church), on the other. Rather, it is cultivated by “schematizing” (educational) institutions oriented upon academic (heuristic) interpretive strategies and—most importantly—supported by textbooks and teachers.

Rethinking Utopia: Power, Place, Affect

Rethinking Utopia: Power, Place, Affect

Policing Intellectual Boundaries? Émigré Scholars, the Council on Foreign Relations Study Group on International Theory, and American International Relations in the 1950s

During the 1950s, several intellectual endeavors on both sides of the Atlantic aimed to further theoretical principles of IR. One of these endeavors was the Council on Foreign Relations Study Group on International Theory that met between December 1953 and June 1954. It brought together scholars from across academic disciplines and professions, but particularly noteworthy is the involvement of émigré scholars. Tracing their contribution, this article takes a critical stance toward common historiographical accounts of the discipline in which émigrés’ involvement is characterized as a gambit to secure space for their alternative visions of scholarship in a hostile academic environment and that they had turned into critics of American liberal democracy due to their experiences with fascism in Europe. By contrast, this article calls for a reconsideration of the role of émigrés by arguing that their engagement in IR’s move to theorization was intended to help retain the discipline’s pluralism in an effort to bridge theory and practice. Getting involved in this interdisciplinary field constituted their attempt to sustain intellectual pluralism across American social sciences, as they believed that behavioralism could endanger American democracy by reducing the contingency, ephemerality, and relationality of human life to questions of social planning.

Comparing in Global Times: Between Extension and Incorporation

Globalization has complicated comparative research. What I call the connective and the integrative moments of globalization influence the comparative gesture differently; while one erodes the boundaries of the case, that is, of the empirical core of comparative research, the other makes comparison theoretically more plausible. Drawing on the heterogeneous epistemologies and histories of disciplines, which ultimately underlie passions for or against comparison, these two moments foster different intellectual endeavors—transnational and global approaches—often set up in opposition. I propose a more synthetic framework of oscillating comparison, which draws equally on the connective and integrative aspects of globalization, engaging the corresponding critical insights in a more productive dialogue. The article outlines a composite strategy that oscillates between different levels and forms of comparison and merges into an overarching framework the transnational approach (through case extension) and the global approach (through incorporated comparison) while expanding the practice of comparative research.

‘Maybe I can do this. Maybe I should be here’: evaluating an academic literacy, resilience and confidence programme

ABSTRACTIt has been well documented in research that students from so-called ‘non-traditional’ backgrounds can experience significant difficulty in accessing higher education, in part due to a lack of cultural capital. This is further reinforced by ‘invisible pedagogic practices’ such as ‘critical analysis’, ‘structure’ and ‘argument’, which uphold the prestige of disciplines without adequately inducting students into such practices. Through the evaluation of an academic literacy intervention (‘ARC’) designed to improve the academic resilience and confidence of students on an undergraduate degree programme, this paper demonstrates that ‘literacy’ is as much a social practice as it is a set of applied skills. Thus, ‘academic literacy’ should constitute both study skills and academic socialisation. This paper further argues that the acquisition of ‘academic literacy’ necessitates the adoption of an ‘academic identity’, which is an emotional as well as an intellectual endeavour. This requires institutions to move away from the deficit model of ‘academic literacy support’ towards models which enable the construction of a shared academic identity and cultivate a sense of belonging to the university environment.

El hombre en la naturaleza: los resultados del Proyecto Chicago en Chiapas, 1956-1959

En este artículo se analizan los resultados a los que llegó el equipo de trabajo del proyecto desarrollado por la Universidad de Chicago sobre las poblaciones tseltales y tsotsiles de Chiapas, concentrándose en su primera fase operativa (1956-1959) y en los documentos que ofrecieron visiones de conjunto. Se revisan las características generales de dicha empresa intelectual, se presenta cómo ha sido entendido el proyecto desde la disciplina antropológica y se ofrece una propuesta alternativa para su comprensión. Para finalizar, se estudian los aportes y contradicciones ofrecidos en el reporte y se muestran al lector elementos para revalidar las actividades emprendidas por el proyecto Chicago en Chiapas.

Chinese Drama and Society by Teresa Chi-Ching Sun

Reviewed by: Chinese Drama and Society by Teresa Chi-Ching Sun Man He (bio) Teresa Chi-Ching Sun. Chinese Drama and Society. Lanham, NY: Hamilton Books, 2019. v, 105 pp. Softcover $32.99, isbn 978-0-7618-7131-6. “Why not modern Chinese drama?” Xiaomei Chen, in her seminal “Introduction” of Acting the Right Part: Political Theatre and Popular Drama in Contemporary [End Page 315] China, questioned the dearth of book-length studies in English on yangbanxi 样板戏 (revolutionary model theater), huaju 话剧 (spoken drama), and, in general, all forms of modern Chinese drama from its inception in the early twentieth century onward. Calling modern Chinese drama “a stepchild of an unhappy family romance,” Chen attributed this marginality to its uneasy position within a set of interlinked dualities—tradition and modernity, East and West, didacticism and aestheticism, locality and globalization, and so forth—as well as to the very interdisciplinary complexity that is embedded within the genre (Chen 2002, p. 18). Chen’s frank question—“why not?”—encapsulated all the confusions, curiosities, and hopes that a generation of Chinese drama practitioners, fans, and scholars collectively owned yet, sadly, did not articulate. This at-stake inquiry implied that it was not modern Chinese drama but the discourse, or lack thereof, which rendered Chinese drama’s peripheral position. I still remember the thrill I had when first reading Chen’s “Introduction.” My excitement was not merely for Chen. Rather, it was for the awareness of a generation of scholars’ intellectual endeavors, a revision of the problematic discourse, and more importantly, a foreseen blossoming of scholarly interest in (modern) Chinese drama. Such a thrill surges whenever I encounter a work that strives to unpack the myth and the misfortune that Chinese drama has endured in English scholarship. Appearing nearly two decades after Chen’s “Introduction,” Teresa Chi-Ching Sun’s Chinese Drama and Society continues to address the “why-not” concern Chen raised. Only Sun’s work is far more ambitious, perhaps too much so to offer a solid analysis. Covering more than seven hundred years in just over one hundred pages, Sun examines a variety of Chinese dramas, including Yuan dynasty (1279–1368) plays, vernacular dramas in late imperial China, Kun opera, Beijing opera, wenmingxi 文明戲 (civilized drama), and huaju. Situating “Chinese drama” in both the apertures and the bridges between “Chinese and Western civilizations” (p. 1), Sun aspires to scrutinize the survival, reformation, and ultimate revival of what she calls “classical drama” as well as identify the everlasting Chinese operatic traditions within the modern and contemporary drama cultures that evolved throughout the twentieth century. Among her discussions of Chinese drama in literary, theoretical, and historical senses, Sun predominantly depicts the historical trajectory of classical drama in the modern era via key political and social movements, including the Self-Strengthening Movement in the late Qing dynasty (1644–1911), the 1911 Revolution, the May Fourth Movement (1919), WWII, and so forth. Notwithstanding the sketchy analyses, Sun’s scholarly undertaking of the reemergence of classical drama and theater traditions in the modern era is definitely worth noting. Indeed, it productively complicates the landscape and dynamic of modern Chinese drama culture. Were Chinese Drama and Society to engage more actively with studies on the “reinvention” of Beijing [End Page 316] opera (Goldstein 2007) and Yue opera (Jiang 2009), as well as the hybridity of wenmingxi in the 1910s (Liu 2013), it would have made a welcomed contribution to the field. Unfortunately, Chinese Drama and Society arrives twenty years later than its ideal timing. Given that almost all primary and secondary sources that the author engages were published before 2000,1 the work, unavoidably, shows signs of being outdated. As an academic, I could not help but develop mixed sentiments toward the work as a manuscript that has patiently waited over two decades for publication. While lamenting some of Sun’s problematic claims and ineffective arguments due to her exclusion of current scholarship, I am certainly intrigued to see that the scope, framework, and concerns Sun adopted to evaluate Chinese drama in the early 2000s remain relevant and at times inspiring today. When I closed Sun’s work, my thrill came back, though this time with a new...

"Joyce Without Borders": A Report on the North American James Joyce Symposium, Mexico City, Mexico, 12-16 June 2019

"Joyce Without Borders":A Report on the North American James Joyce Symposium, Mexico City, Mexico, 12-16 June 2019 Tiffany L. Fajardo Mexico City may seem the least likely destination for a Joyce conference, but 2019's "Joyce Without Borders" makes a strong case for situating symposia in new and exciting locales outside [End Page 17] the Anglosphere. With its historic Roma backdrop, Mexico City's Universidad Nacional Autónoma offered Joyceans an invigorating conference venue that brought scholars the world over together for five days of performances, panels, and fun. A conference unlike any other, in addition to the serious scholarship on display, this year's events included a Ulysses-themed tarot reading by the artist Penelope K. Wade and a Finnegans Wake yoga class led by James Shaw, ensuring a delightful and unforgettable experience for all attendees. The conference kicked off on Wednesday, 12 June, with Carol Wade's "Art of the Wake," a witty exploration of Finnegans Wake through painting and illustration. In the words of Wade, "I just love it when art causes a conversation"—and that she did! By turns elegant and playful, Wade's art is a visual smorgasbord that set the pace for the conference as an intellectual endeavor, which, however ambitious, illuminated Joyce for a broad audience and beckoned him from the ivory tower and into the dear, dirty streets. Next, composer Neal Kosaly-Meyer's "Finnegans Wake, fragment performed from memory" was a tour-de-force feat in which he performed eight pages of the Wake entirely from memory. The acute attention to musical detail and quasi-liturgical staging, including his pausing to pour water and whiskey which he then ceremonially drank, was wholly unique. Gavan Kennedy's "Finnegan Wakes Film Project" followed, democratizing Joyce's most experimental work by choosing volunteers to read randomly selected passages set to any tune that had impacted them in a meaningful way. The scope of the project is massive, seeking to set all of the Wake to film, and Kennedy shot several clips with conference-goers throughout the week's events. Thursday, 13 June, saw the beginning of panel sessions proper, with veteran and virgin researchers convening to present fresh perspectives on Joyce's oeuvre. Chaired by Kiron Ward, the morning session's "Joyce in Africa, Africa in Joyce," was very much in the spirit of the conference theme. Teresa Valentini's "Comparative Modernisms: Olive Schreiner's African Farm and Joyce's A Portrait," raised issues of identity, gender, and nation. Michael Wood then delivered the first keynote on "Melodies of Underdevelopment," stressing the relationship between music and class in Joyce's work. The Joycean events continued well into lunch with a Finnegans Wake reading group led by Rodney Sharkey and Peter Quadrino, showcasing a delicious prix fixe menu that highlighted traditional Mexican dishes and made for a crossing of linguistic and culinary borders. The return to the conference marked presentations by my panel, "Nes Yo: Living with the Irresolvable in Joyce's Fiction." For my part, "'The He and the She of It': Embracing Indeterminacy in Joyce" attempted to shift the focus from HCE to ALP and interrogate the uncertainty surrounding the Phoenix Park incident, as well as raise [End Page 18] discussions about the contemporary significance of this "crime" in the wake of #metoo. Shifting gears, Tim Conley's "Don't you know he's dead?" offered a Wittgensteinian spin on Joyce's texts, reminding us that nothing—not even the ostensibly obvious difference between life and death—is ever beyond critique, and that the simplest of premises becomes questionable in the hands of Joyce. Austin Briggs followed this with the Empson-inflected "Seven Types of Joycean Ambiguity and What to Do with Them," highlighting the multiple and contradictory valences in Joyce's work from Dubliners through Ulysses. The afternoon then closed with a panel chaired by conference organizer James Ramey, "Joyce and Posthumanism," which was one of the day's most provocative. Given the typical antipathy to theory in Joyce and lack of scholarship by women on the Wake, graduate students Maisie Ridgeway's "Joyce the Technician: Algorithms and Autopoiesis in Finnegans Wake" and Brenna MacDougall's "Posthuman Joyce? The Becomings...

In Memoriam: Roberto Fernández Retamar (1930–2019)

In MemoriamRoberto Fernández Retamar (1930–2019) Elzbieta Sklodowska Roberto Fernández Retamar (1930–2019) was a prolific poet, renowned essayist, and a controversial public figure whose creative and intellectual life was inextricably intertwined with the history of the Cuban Revolution. He was committed to the revolutionary cause to the point of embracing an austere lifestyle and an ongoing militant stance, but, in his writings and public statements, he was also thought-provoking to the point of provocation. At the core of Fernández Retamar’s contribution to the Latin American decolonization project was a nostalgia for and perhaps even an undying belief in a utopian ideal, something very few of us would dare to profess in the wake of the horrors and terrors of the long twentieth century. At no point did disillusionment seem to creep into his public persona, even when the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s plunged revolutionary Cuba into the deepest socio-economic crisis of its history, known as the Special Period in the Times of Peace, and later, during the hardly restrained protocapitalism of the “transition” that followed. A true believer rather than a turncoat, always marching in step with the Cuban Revolution—which, in its 60 years and counting, has had its own share of grave and seldom rectified missteps—Fernández Retamar could not evade the fiery darts of criticism hurled at him from every possible direction. Alongside the heartfelt lamentations that he had squandered his impressive erudition and significant poetic talent in the service of ideology, and a vast array of thoughtfully polemical papers, theses, lectures, and blogs, a few of Fernández Retamar’s detractors did not hesitate to descend into openly ad hominem strikes. Regrettably, and perhaps ironically, some of the most unforgiving attacks surfaced in the guise of obituaries after his passing in the summer of 2019 at the age of 89. In Calibán (1971), the signature essay for which he is both widely celebrated and mercilessly vilified, Fernández Retamar unshackled the fury of antiimperialist rhetoric and conjured the figure of Calibán to single-handedly defy (post)colonial epistemologies. Born in the heart of the Caribbean in response to a political crisis with far-reaching ramifications (the Padilla Case), this tempestuous manifesto resonated with a long legacy of Latin Americanist thought from writers as revered as José Martí, [End Page 817] José Enrique Rodó, Alfonso Reyes, and José Carlos Mariátegui. The grip of political urgency versus the utopian lure of an overarching continental poetics, the near-hubristic self-confidence of the frantic prose versus the wisdom of self-questioning, the torrent of eclectic ideas interspersed with nuggets of lyrical insight, all describe and obscure Calibán as much as they capture and mask the contradictions of the man, Fernández Retamar. Wrought with tensions between opposing forces, which the author refused to resolve in later translations, re-editions, and revisions, Calibán entered the bloodstream of Latin Americanism and has never ceased to ignite debates across the full range of discursive and ideological registers. Fernández Retamar’s enduring legacy as a literary critic and theorist extends beyond Calibán, of course, and encompasses authoritative studies on major Latin American writers (José Martí, Rubén Darío, Ernesto Cardenal) along with sweeping panoramas of Cuban poetry and Spanish American literary theory (La poesía contemporánea en Cuba 1927–1953; Para una teoría de la literatura hispanoamericana, to name just a few). Tireless in fulfilling his myriad roles, assignments, titles, and capacities, Fernández Retamar should be recognized as the co-founder of the journal Unión (1962), as well as the founder—and director until 1986—of Centro de Estudios Martianos and its journal, Anuario. But first and foremost, he will be remembered for his long leadership at the helm of Casa de las Américas (1986–2019), Cuba’s flagship cultural institution of hemispheric reach, whose eponymous journal he began editing in 1965. Under his guidance, Casa de las Américas was not only instrumental in encouraging Latin American(ist) artistic and intellectual endeavors through an impressive array of publications and prizes, but also helped promote Havana...

Emotional Intelligence as a Vital Indicator of Teacher Effectiveness

The present research will refer to emotional intelligence (EI) with important work-related outcomes such as teacher performance as well as organizational productivity. The initial goal is to explore the effect (role) of emotional intelligence skills in effective teaching, and its effect on the productivity of teacher's performance during the teaching-learning process. Effective teaching and good learning are two integral parts of students’ academic success. There are number of crucial factors which play an important role in teacher effectiveness such as teacher’s classroom management skills, teacher’s subject expertise, knowledge of teaching methods, teacher’s professionalism, - how to structure, explain and present the materials, and others. But emotional intelligence (EI), as the fifth component and the most important factor, sets most effective teachers apart from the majority because process of learning involves emotional and intellectual endeavor, struggle, frustration, excitement, also anxiety. Therefore an affective teacher needs an understanding of students’ emotional state and causes of their behavior to create an ideal learning environment that encourages positive social interaction, active engagement and strong motivation to learn. In the light of exploration of the role of Emotional Intelligence in effective teaching-learning process, this study asserts that teachers’ emotional competence factors contribute to the teacher effectiveness more than any other single factor. For instance, development of supportive teacher-student relationships, effective classroom management strategies, and successful emotional learning program implementation in order to create an ideal classroom climate that is more conducive to learning. All these contributions promote positive developmental outcomes in students’ achievements.

Letters from England: A Contribution to the Intellectual Biography of Alexander Altmann

Letters from England:A Contribution to the Intellectual Biography of Alexander Altmann Ira Robinson (bio) introduction Jewish studies in the English language has been immeasurably enriched by the forced emigration from Nazi Germany of scholars like Alexander Altmann (1906–87)1 and Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–72)2 to England and the United States. Scholars who have engaged with Altmann's biography have thus far largely concentrated their attention on his career in Germany, cut short by his 1938 emigration to Manchester, England, and, to a lesser extent, on his American career at Brandeis University, starting in 1959. The period he spent as "Communal Rabbi of Manchester and District" from 1938 to 1959 has not yet received its scholarly due, though clearly it is in these decades that Altmann became one of the most influential Jewish studies scholars in the world. In the course of research in the Abraham Joshua Heschel Papers at Duke University, I found a file containing eight letters Altmann sent Heschel from England dated from 1940 to 1952.3 Copies of the letters [End Page 321] Heschel sent Altmann are not extant in the Heschel papers.4 The excerpts of the letters selected for this brief essay witness Altmann's English sojourn from two perspectives. The first is the human side: we see Altmann as he confronted German air raids on Manchester, supported the British home front, and faced the agony of knowing that his family was in mortal danger in German-occupied Holland. We also see his growing scholarly engagements with the British academic community, his tensions with the British rabbinical establishment, his efforts to create Jewish educational initiatives that would culminate in the Institute of Jewish Studies, and his relationships with Israeli scholars and the Hebrew University. The letters underline both Altmann's determination to grow as a scholar and his strong conviction that his intellectual endeavors, along with those of his fellow German Jewish refugees, were of great significance. the letters: altmann to heschel5 2nd Dec[ember], 1940 My dear friend, It is a long time that I have not written to you. But I had you in mind constantly, and it was especially in the days of Rosh Hashono that my good wishes went out to you—though silently—I hope they will be fulfilled … I hope your students will appreciate the ways of your thoughts and the methods of your teaching. I hope you will find happiness in your work and in your surroundings. How far have you advanced in your work on "Tefillah"? I feel that your thoughts must often wander across the Atlantic to your many friends especially in this country which is now so heroically fighting not only her own but even your battle. Alas, many of those who were so anxious to work in the spiritual field and who were your closest collaborators in the "Institute for Jewish Learning" are now [End Page 322] interned.6 All their work has consequently come to a standstill. My own scheme which I had initiated with great enthusiasm had also to be abandoned, at least "for the duration." My experience was very disappointing and, as I wrote to you, I believe, caused me even trouble and unpleasantness. The orthodox section of the London Rabbinate was very much annoyed about my activities. They felt that "spiritual revitalization" and "Science of Judaism" were dangerous issues, particularly in conjunction with people who are themselves non-orthodox. It is indeed surprising that I have to face here an orthodoxy which has no desire whatsoever to come to an understanding with the modern mentality.7 Nonetheless, I personally pursue my spiritual aims and interests, and spend many an hour in the [John] Rylands Library (which you ought to have visited when you were in Manchester). My wife and family are [b"h, thank God] well. It was a terribly difficult and grim year which is drawing to its close now. I must not look back, and sometimes its horror seizes me again. But , [ḥasde ha-shem azkir, I will recall God's mercy].8 God has bestowed his mercy upon us. The illness has gone like a bad dream, and my wife...

Principles and Strategies for Effective Teaching: A Workshop for Pre- and Postdoctoral Trainees in the Biomedical Sciences.

The 2012 National Institutes of Health (NIH) Biomedical Workforce Working Group Report documented that graduate training in the biomedical sciences predominantly prepares people for academic research positions. The report recommended that NIH provide funds for institutions to develop broader career development opportunities, including training related to teaching. Indeed, teaching is not only a required component of any faculty position, it is the primary task for trainees who seek employment at small liberal arts colleges and other primarily undergraduate institutions. NIH funding for the BEST (Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training) programs allowed us to develop a six-week training workshop for bioscience trainees to introduce participants to research-based, student-centered pedagogies and instructional design techniques and to inspire them to view teaching as an intellectual endeavor. The methods and outcomes of our case study should be applicable in a variety of programs and organizations, especially those with a separate health science campus, where faculty mentors often do not teach many classes and there are few, if any, apprenticeship-teaching opportunities for trainees.

Transdisciplinarity at the Boundaries: Exploring a Sylvan Metaphor for Health

Transdisciplinarity is an action-oriented intellectual and ethical endeavor to address complex ecological, economic, and political challenges that humans face. Language is viewed as a powerful tool for necessary cultural change. Blending art and science looking for the difficult to define but critically important hidden spaces between apparently rigid conceptual structures is a core of transdisciplinarity. Metaphor is a particular powerful tool for examining boundaries and developing creative blends of structures and processes. Forests are biologically and culturally critical to life on the planet. In this paper we explore, a performance character named Sylvanus, the Tree Doctor, named after the Roman god of forests and boundaries. We consider the importance of intergenerational learning as a process for deeper reflection on human responsibility over time. Transdisciplinarity is energized by intergenerativity and collective wisdom. Systemic and holistic conceptions of health will be essential for the survival and reinvention of human civilization in better balance with planetary ecosystems.

Resource Booms and Institutional Pathways: The Case of the Extractive Industry in Peru ed. by Eduardo Dargent et al.

Reviewed by: Resource Booms and Institutional Pathways: The Case of the Extractive Industry in Peru ed. by Eduardo Dargent et al. Anthony Bebbington Eduardo Dargent, José Carlos Orihuela, Maritza Paredes, and María Eugenia Ulfe, eds. Resource Booms and Institutional Pathways: The Case of the Extractive Industry in Peru. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. 206 pp. $89.99 e-book (ISBN: 978-3-319-53532-6); $119.99 cloth (ISBN: 978-3-319-53531-9). Though formally an edited collection, Resource Booms and Institutional Pathways is the product of a collective intellectual endeavor linking scholars and (former) students at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. La Católica has become one of the most interesting centers of interdisciplinary research on extractivism in Latin America, and this book reflects the combination of innovative thinking, empirical sensibilities and merging of theory and political insight that has underlain so many of the contributions that have emerged from the university. That this work has been done at La Católica itself reflects the degree to which Peru was one of the "leaders" in the mineral investment boom that has come to affect so much of Latin America over the last two decades. This book takes that boom as its period of analysis, and asks how sustained investment in the "new" mining has interacted with patterns of institutional change in the public sector. In pursuing this question, the book speaks directly to theories of institutional change that, while drawn primarily from political science and sociology (Kathleen Thelen, Peter Hall, Doug McAdam, Peter Haas etc.), have much relevance for geographers who are interested in state building, environmental governance, contentious politics, and uneven development. As they analyze patterns of institutional change over the last two decades, the authors prefer to talk of "institutional regime" rather than simply of "institutions" understood as "the rules of the game." This is because, they argue, "[l]aws only become institutions in the proper sense of the scholarly definition, when state actors and/or social forces put their power and weight behind them" (p. 178–9). Rule enforcement is, then, every bit as important as rule-making, and such enforcement depends on the relative capacities of state, civic, and private sector organizations to roll out or resist changes in the rules that govern the mineral sector. The notion of "institutional regime" is intended to capture this combination of rules and organizational capacities. The authors make a useful distinction between institutional regimes related to "benefits management" and "costs management" linked to extractives. They focus their analysis on those regimes for "benefits management" that involve the collection, redistribution and spending of taxes generated by resource extraction, as well as the more specific case of fiscal transfers for investment in provincial universities in areas with the presence of tax-paying resource extraction. On the "costs management side" they consider institutional regimes linked to environmental regulation, conflict management, and community consultations (though consultation is also seen as part of benefits management). The individual chapters are a very good read. While they probably speak more to Peruvianists than to anyone else, they include [End Page 233] much that is of relevance for ongoing challenges and contention in the region as a whole. Thus, while grounded in the Peruvian experience, the chapters throw important light on how Ministries of Environment have been created and resisted; environmental regulations governing mining can be tightened, contested, and unraveled; fiscal systems that transfer substantial parts of extractive industry tax payments back to mining regions can emerge and then become self-reproducing in ways that constrain further innovation in fiscal practice; and human rights agencies within the state can be strengthened and become important sources of transparency, accountability and public debate over extractivism. These are vital insights for scholars and activists alike who share an interest in the conditions under which "better government" might emerge. And for those who need inspiration, the chapter on the Defensoria del Pueblo should do the job: against the odds, this is an institution that has made a profound difference to the regulation of extraction and extractive industry conflicts in Peru, and the analysis throws light on how that became possible, albeit with avances y retrocesos. For...

Monism vs. pluralism, the global financial crisis, and the methodological struggle in the field of International Political Economy

In recent years, a comprehensive debate has been taking place over the ontological, epistemological and methodological roots underlying the discipline of International Political Economy. A fundamental and sometimes fierce discussion arose over the questions of which research strategies should prevail, which methods should be applied and what kind of knowledge counts as scientific. The debate has tended to reduce the different positions and International Political Economy approaches to American International Political Economy on the one side and British International Political Economy on the other. Framing the perspectives in this way, however, is misleading. This article argues that the issue at the core of the methodological debate is not the American versus the British school, but rather theoretical monism versus theoretical pluralism. Hence, the core of the debate addresses the question whether scientific work in International Political Economy should ultimately subscribe to one methodology or one fundamental principle or whether the field should make use of a wide variety of theories and methods so as to enable scholars to adapt their research strategy depending on the case under study. A short analysis of existing approaches to the global financial crisis shows the importance of the existence of multiple perspectives, concepts and theoretical approaches. The paper concludes that the 2008 financial crisis in particular has shown how dangerous it is to reduce intellectual endeavour to a narrow mindset. Only pluralism conveys the ability to respond in an adequate manner to the old and new challenges of our times.

The hermeneutical dimension of the bioethical enterprise. Notes on the dialogical/narrative foundations of bioethics

Based on the challenges posed by the scientific activity of the author, related to the integration and harmonization of heterogeneous discourses, a hermeneutic framework for bioethics is stressed. It is mainly concerned with elucidating intentions, hidden meanings, and motivations of texts and behaviors that can be converted into texts. Equating the mimetic circle of Paul Ricoeur with the hermeneutical circle is advocated as a practical application. The importance of the hermeneutic approach suggests that it can also be applied to written productions in bioethics, since the history of this intellectual endeavor can be reformulated considering a reinterpretation of its record.

A conceptual history of the “regulatory genome”: From Theodor Boveri to Eric Davidson

The formalization of the idea of “Regulatory Genome” is a recent one. However, it stems from a long tradition in the study of how the genetic information is transferred between generations. Theodore Boveri suggested for the first time that the whole genome participates in the shaping of individuals. Through a long lineage of researchers, we have learned how this whole-genome activity is regulated, in space and time. It is, however, due to the insights and experimental approaches taken by different researchers, among them Eric Davidson and associates, that we understand the mechanistic basis of this regulation. Whole batteries of regulatory genes interact through their cis-regulatory modules, generating a precise pattern of cross-controlled gene activity (Gene Regulatory Networks). How these genes are deployed in development and evolution has become an area of vibrant research. Here we revisit the history of this intellectual endeavour, taking as key defining points along this historical trajectory the contributions of Theodor Boveri and Eric Davidson.

Faith, Devotion, and Doctrinal Knowledge

Abstract The genre of kōshiki 講式 (ceremonial lectures) has, over the last decade, gained significant traction in the fields of Buddhist studies and Japanese religions, but its commentarial sub-genre remains largely unexplored. While kōshiki offer fertile ground for understanding devotional practices across nearly all Buddhist schools in Japan, commentaries reveal how Buddhists understood their liturgical content and, more narrowly, how this content was consumed and re-purposed through intellectual endeavor. This article contributes to this understudied area in two ways. First, it demonstrates how the medieval Shingon cleric Gahō 我寶 (1239–1317) wielded the Shari kuyō shiki 舎利供養式, a ceremonial lecture written by Kakuban 覺鑁 (1095–1143), as a textual and performative embodiment of faith and devotion. Second, it suggests that his commentary gave shape to expressions of these very themes in various intellectual, performative, and editorial forums in later periods at the Kyoto temple Chishakuin 智積院.

No paradigm to mobilize: the new mobilities paradigm is not a paradigm

ABSTRACT In an essay published in 2006 in Environment and Planning A and in a second essay published in 2016 in this journal, Mimi Sheller and John Urry have made the case for the emergence of a new social science paradigm – “the new mobilities paradigm”. Sheller and Urry argue that the spectrum of published mobility-related theory and empirical research, taken in its entirety, may be described as a paradigm. This use of the term “paradigm” only minimally resembles Thomas Kuhn’s description of a paradigm. Moreover, the mobilities literature they cite in support of the claim that a mobilities paradigm is emerging in the social sciences is informed not by a mobilities paradigm but by a diversity of extant social science paradigms. As described by Sheller and Urry, the central theoretical characteristic of this paradigm has been to conceptualize mobility as composed of complex social systems. The term “the new mobilities paradigm” is a misnomer; it is not a mobilities paradigm but a systems theory paradigm with a mobility focus. Given the continued academic prestige attached to the designation “paradigm” since the publication of Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, there are symbolic and material benefits to be gained in describing the theory and research cited by Sheller and Urry as a “paradigm”. Nevertheless, the general acceptance of the paradigm claim by mobility scholars stands in the way of adequately conceptualizing what kind of intellectual endeavor mobility studies might be, as well as efforts to “mobilize” mobility scholarship.

Proof Complexity and Beyond

Proof complexity is a multi-disciplinary intellectual endeavor that addresses questions of the general form “how difficult is it to prove certain mathematical facts?” The current workshop focused on recent advances in our understanding of logic-based proof systems and on connections to algorithms, geometry and combinatorics research, such as the analysis of approximation algorithms, or the size of linear or semidefinite programming formulations of combinatorial optimization problems, to name just two important examples.