Mainstream Scholarship Research Articles

Words, Words, Words: How the Digital Humanities Are Integrating Diverse Research Fields to Study People

The rapidly developing field of digital humanities (DH) is showing how unprecedented volumes of data such as written expression can be studied to reveal new insights into humans and, therefore, into individual and collective experiences within and across societies. Scholars from disciplines such as literature and history are collaborating with scientists from disciplines such as statistics and computer science. Moreover, these interdisciplinary teams often reach beyond campuses to companies as well as local, national, and international public and nonprofit institutions. Surprisingly, the computational research that began in the humanities in the 1950s did not develop an important presence within mainstream scholarship until half a century later. The DH experiences thus far reflect the complexity of both human expression and research collaborations across diverse fields and sectors. Learning from past successes and failures will help meet today's data analytic challenges and prepare us for opportunities in statistical applications ranging from literary studies and cybersecurity to business intelligence and health indicators.

Yes, but what about services: is development doctrine changing?

ABSTRACT Since the early 1990s, the service sector has played an increasing role in economic growth in poor countries. This contradicts mainstream views of industrialisation as the central driver of growth. Yet, mainstream scholars and policy makers have so far failed to accommodate the "anomaly" of servicisation into development doctrine or theory – as keyword searches of the World Bank's World Development Reports and of academic output in EBSCO show. This article argues that ignoring the current reality of "deagriculturalising servicisation" (DAS) bears the risk of theory development without a base in evidence.

Building the country or rescuing the people: Ben-Gurion's attitude towards mass Jewish immigration to Israel in the mid-1950s

ABSTRACTIn mainstream scholarship, David Ben-Gurion is described as one of the main supporters and primary advocates of the policy of encouraging mass Jewish immigration to Israel (aliya) in the 1950s. The Zionist movement had two different motives for supporting aliya: Diaspora Jews’ need for a safe haven (which would require mass aliya), and the need to build a solid and stable Jewish society in mandatory Palestine/Israel (which would require selective aliya).When Ben-Gurion, in the 1940s, came to favour mass aliya, he did so because of the immigrants’ potential contribution to the attainment of statehood and then the independent state.In the first years after independence, when entire communities immigrated to Israel, they included old and infirm people who did not fit the image of the pioneers of pre-state aliya. Nevertheless, for Ben-Gurion, their demographic contribution outweighed the burden of their absorption. By 1952, he had changed his mind and became one of the strongest supporters of selective immigration. He continued to support selectivity even when, in 1955, the safety of Moroccan Jews and their freedom to emigrate was in jeopardy. Ben-Gurion's attitude to aliya from Morocco, in the shadow of the Czech-Egyptian arms deal, reflected his priority – a strong and secure Israel.

Yezhov vs. Stalin: The Causes of the Mass Repressions of 1937–1938 in the USSR

This article outlines the causes of the mass repressions of 1937–1938 in the Soviet Union. Primary-source evidence strongly supports the hypothesis that these repressions were the result of anti-Stalin conspiracies by two groups, which overlapped somewhat: the political Opposition of supporters of Grigorii Zinoviev, of Trotskyists, of Rightists (Bukharin, Rykov, and their adherents); and of military men (Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky and others); and high-ranking Party leaders, nominally supporters of Stalin, who opposed the democratic aspects of the “Stalin” Constitution of 1936. It discusses Stalin’s struggle for democratic reform and its defeat. The prevailing “anti-Stalin paradigm” of Soviet history is exposed as the reason mainstream scholarship has failed to understand the mass repressions, misnamed “Great Terror.”

Jessie Weston and the Ancient Mystery of Arthurian Romance

Abstract This article presents a survey of the work of Jessie Weston and examines her role in the development of Arthurian studies in the first half of the twentieth century. In her considerable output of articles, editions, and retellings of Arthurian romance tales, Weston attempted to establish links between major themes in medieval Arthurian romances and the ancient traditions of the Celts. These speculations reached their height in her most famous and most controversial book, From Ritual to Romance, where she suggested that the origins of the medieval Grail story could be traced back to an initiation ritual in an ancient mystery cult that survived into the medieval period. Although From Ritual to Romance has influenced modernist literature and culture, current Arthurian scholarship has largely rejected Weston’s theories about the relationship between Celtic civilization and romance. However, the popularity surrounding this controversial work, especially outside mainstream scholarship, has obscured Weston’s other work, and the present study is intended to present a wider context for her achievements and to examine their contribution to the study of Arthurian tradition at the beginning of the twentieth century.

THE CONCEALED CRIME OF THE NADĪTU PRIESTESS IN §110 OF THE LAWS OF HAMMURABI

LH 110 is part of the ancient Near Eastern scholarly debate regarding the function and role of the nadiātu-priestess groups in Old Babylonian society. Seemingly, LH 110 forbids the uncloistered nadītu from opening up or entering a business place associated with the sābītu; the penalty for such a crime is public execution by burning. Mainstream scholars view the nadiātu through the lens of either (a) indulging in illicit behaviour or (b) that LH 110 reflects a prohibition for the nadītu to compromise her chastity. In contrast, Martha Roth (1999) opines that LH 110 is an economic regulation of the nadītu, prohibiting her from overshadowing the money-lending business of the sābītu. However, what poses a problem is the horrific penalty, which seems to suggest and be justification for a seemingly terrible crime committed in concealment. I propose that when this prohibition is transgressed, a horrific crime is committed – tax evasion – which is a furtive crime that endangers the continuous welfare of the king/state. LH 110 is a fiscal regulation protecting the state/king’s revenues. The intention is to prevent a specific group of the nadiātu – an uncloistered priestess – to enter or open an enterprise, which the OB state administration is unable to regulate. Consequently, the nadītu could effortlessly conceal her yielded profits and thus evade paying tax to the king/state.

South Africa and the Question of Hegemony in Africa

This article examines the viability of mainstream neo-realist international relations scholarship for understanding regional power dynamics within Africa by offering a critical evaluation of the categorization of South Africa as a hegemonic power on the continent. Using the theoretical framework of hegemonic stability theory, it argues that there is a somewhat weak link between South Africa’s foreign policy character and its hegemonic disposition in Africa. The South African state, which is the driving force for political, economic and foreign policy processes, is itself subordinate in relation to international capital and lacks the influence expected of a regional hegemon. Despite South Africa’s development, the article demonstrates that its dependency provides the theoretical construct for understanding the country’s ambiguous hegemonic projection. This analytical framework captures the crux of the “hegemonic debate” as well as other conversations in relation to the adaptation of the concept of hegemony to Africa. Therefore, any application of the hegemonic discourse to South Africa necessarily requires a deeper understanding that takes cognizance of the fact that country’s regional hegemony operates within the orbit of a dependent-development paradigm in the global economic order, a neo-liberal order that continues to deepen Africa’s dependency syndrome. Dependency, as well as other complexities, impedes the reality of South Africa’s hegemonic ambitions in Africa.

Ines Aščerić-Todd, Dervishes and Islam in Bosnia: Sufi Dimensions to the Formation of Bosnian Muslim Society

The relative scarcity of books about the history of Sufism and Sufi culture in the Western Balkans, and especially the scarcity of books written in the languages of Western Europe,1 has led to an oversimplification of the subject and an attempt to force it into the conventional patterns and frameworks employed by mainstream scholarship.

Yezhov vs. Stalin: The Causes of the Mass Repressions of 1937-1938 in the USSR

This article outlines the causes of the mass repressions of 1937–1938 in the Soviet Union. Primary-source evidence strongly supports the hypothesis that these repressions were the result of anti-Stalin conspiracies by two groups, which overlapped somewhat: the political Opposition of supporters of Grigorii Zinoviev, of Trotskyists, of Rightists (Bukharin, Rykov, and their adherents); and of military men (Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky and others); and high-ranking Party leaders, nominally supporters of Stalin, who opposed the democratic aspects of the “Stalin” Constitution of 1936. It discusses Stalin's struggle for democratic reform and its defeat. The prevailing “anti-Stalin paradigm” of Soviet history is exposed as the reason mainstream scholarship has failed to understand the mass repressions, misnamed “Great Terror.”

Lex Machina Non Est: A Response to Mark Lemley's 'Faith-Based Intellectual Property'

This essay responds to Mark Lemley’s controversial article Faith-Based Intellectual Property. The essay argues that intellectual property requires a far richer concept of human cultural flourishing than positivism and utilitarianism can provide. It argues that Lemley’s understanding of the “laws of nature” and of the relationship between science and religion are based in perspectives that have long been rejected by mainstream scholarship. Finally, the essay offers insights from the creation narratives and the Tower of Babel story in the Hebrew Scriptures to suggest that Lemley’s vision ultimately requires technocratic social control: an ancient and enduring threat to authentic human creative endeavor.

On Class and Identity Politics

In political sociology, the poverty of the conclusions reached by venerable academics is the result of a failure to place a critical analysis of race at the heart of mainstream scholarship.

The Concept of Jihad in Islamic Texts: An Analytical Study of Violence between Mainstream Scholars and Extremists

This paper seeks to analyze both the Islamic texts dealing with jihad and the relationship between them and its practice. The desire to promote peace and harmony is based on general Islamic religious purposes, or Maqāṣid al-šarīʿa, of the two interpretations of the extremists and mainstream scholars. Bearing in mind that these texts are believed to be divinely-inspired, the interpretations are, however, human. The said texts have been the subject of two broad interpretational approaches: the orthodox interpretation that is widely accepted by the mainstream and supported by Islamic principles in general, and the interpretations of certain minorities that are rejected by the mainstream. This paper seeks to examine the qualitative research methodology and theological analysis used by contemporary extremists groups of what seems to be textual evidence of “violent jihad” in Islam. The significance of this study is to investigate the appropriate use of interpretations that could be acceptable to mainstream scholars and reflects the real nature of Islamic principles. Subsequently, it concludes that the violence that is manifested in extremist activities is the result of the misinterpretation of some Islamic texts regarding jihad, and that, in contrast, the best modern interpretation of jihad is ğihad al-nafs, which, alongside many other meanings that promote peace, has been declared the correct path by mainstream scholars in their response to the extremists.

Friend or foe? First language (L1) in second/foreign language (L2/FL) instruction & Vygotsky

Abstract This theoretical review paper investigates the role of first language (L1) in the mainstream scholarship of second/foreign (L2/FL) language education in the context of language learning, teaching, and bilingual education. The term ‘mainstream’ refers here to the scholarship that is not informed by sociocultural theory in general and Vygotskian sociocultural theory in particular. The paper later explains a Vygotskian perspective on the use of L1 in L2/FL language education and discusses how the perspective may help content teachers in (a) employing L1 in teaching L2/FL content and (b) helping L2/FL students to become self-regulative users of the target language.

Network-centric digital development in Korea: Origins, growth and prospects

South Korea is currently the world leader in digital network infrastructure and the leading example of ICT-driven development. However, the explanation of how and why Korea accomplished these things is not clearly apparent from a review of mainstream scholarship. A deeper understanding of Korea’s “miracle on the Han” requires more historical, cultural, political and social context. This study addresses questions of how, when and why a nation whose infrastructures were utterly destroyed at the 1953 cessation of hostilities in the Korean War could emerge as the world’s digital network leader. It examines policy issues bearing on digitization of networks, network architecture and network technologies, along with broader context in which these policies were considered, drafted and implemented. Chronologically, the study explains the origins of digital development in the revolutionary decade of the 1980s, Korea’s rise to world broadband leader in the 1990s and its ambitious plans for next generation networks. The study concludes with a review of policy “lessons”, including both successes and failures, that may be drawn from the Korean experience.

“ ‘Knowledge is Truth’: A Course in Miracles as Neo-Gnostic Scripture”

A Course in Miraclesrepresents a modern-day neo-gnostic scripture that reflects significant trends in contemporary Western religiosity, especially the quest for alternative forms of esoteric “spiritual” knowledge and experience in a nominally Christian or post-Christian Western world. While this text has largely been ignored or marginalized in mainstream scholarship, a critical evaluation of theCourse, its editing, reception, and contemporary interpretation not only represents a fascinating case study in how “texts” become invested with “scriptural” authority, but illustrates how theCourse’s claims about Jesus and God exemplify the gnosticizing trajectories in the contemporary New Age movement.

The ‘Oops!’ of EU Engagement Abroad: Analyzing Unintended Consequences of EU External Action

AbstractThe mainstream scholarship assessing EU external action frames the subject in terms of success or failure to achieve the intended effects, the latter generally defined against the EU's own stated objectives. Resting on a tacit assumption that EU engagement in third states is a good thing, these analyses are framed as ‘positive impact or no impact’ and tend to neglect the wider effects of EU policies. This article maintains that EU external action may and often does have unintended consequences, thus expanding the study of EU impact beyond the sheer study of EU effectiveness. Drawing on broader literature on unintended consequences, the article proposes a framework for analyzing unintended consequences of EU external action. It synthesizes and adapts to the EU context a classification of unintended consequences and, in order to illustrate its utility, applies the proposed framework to three empirical examples derived from EU neighbourhood, migration and trade policies.

Varieties in Comparative Capitalisms Research: A Critical Juncture

This article addresses Richard Westra, Ian Bruff and Matthias Ebenau's responses to my prior review essay on their edited volumes. In my initial survey, I concluded that both volumes reinvigorate the radical potential of contemporary Comparative Capitalisms (CC) literatures, but warned against the tendency in critical research to trace capitalism solely at its worst. I posited that this pessimism undermines the volumes’ pedagogical potential and threatens to bring us to intellectual cul-de-sacs. The authors respond in different ways to this critical engagement: Westra provides a guideline to trace such an intellectual pessimism in the (neo-)Marxist political economy and points to the so-called ‘Uno approach’ as an alternative direction that opens our intellectual horizons to social change in (post-)capitalism. In contrast, Bruff and Ebenau regard my review as less monochromatic than other discussions of their research project but nevertheless assertively retort to my critique. This reply seeks to engage the aforementioned scholars in a discussion, while reconsidering the alleged pessimism of critical CC research as informed optimism. Such informed optimism must be found in a critical research that (i) is based on a deeper reflexive theoretical discussion rather than a one-sided deconstruction of mainstream scholarship; and (ii) derives from a holistic approach broadened by a human-centred perspective, which also exposes us to actually existing alternatives within as well as to (post-)capitalism. Given that such approaches are currently only implicit, the many ongoing crises of contemporary capitalism represent a critical juncture not only for mainstream, but also for critical CC research.

Korea's Grievous War by Su-kyoung Hwang

Reviewed by: Korea's Grievous War by Su-kyoung Hwang Charles J. Hanley (bio) Su-kyoung Hwang, Korea's Grievous War (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016), ISBN 978-0-8122-4845-6, 250 pages. One of the best-selling Korean War histories of recent years devotes an entire six-page chapter to a discussion of Douglas MacArthur's mother.1 However, that 719-page book, by a celebrated American popular historian, spares not a single word to inform the reader that massive numbers of innocent Korean civilians—perhaps two million or more—were killed in that war, many at the hands of the US forces under the same General MacArthur. "The subject of civilian casualties occupies a marginal place in the American memory of the Korean War,"2 Su-kyoung Hwang, with mild understatement, concludes in her Korea's Grievous War. Hwang's book is a powerful, deeply researched, passionately delivered antidote to this blindness that, with a few honorable exceptions, has afflicted the historiography of the "forgotten war" for more than a half-century. Hwang, a historian of modern Korea who teaches at the University of Sydney, notes that only in the past decade or so, as the South Korean police state faded farther into the past, have mainstream scholars and journalists begun to gather the declassified archival evidence and oral testimony that would shed light on this hidden history of mass political executions by the southern regime and widespread indiscriminate killings of noncombatants during the 1950 to 1953 conflict.3 South Korea's official Truth and Reconciliation Commission did pivotal investigative work, including excavation of mass graves, from 2005 to 2010. Hwang draws on its findings, as well as those of other Korean academic and journalistic investigators. But it is her own years of research—from the tranquil confines of US government archives to long, tearful hours of interviews with survivors—that impart a special power to this book. It was not always easy. Although she eventually received valuable assistance from US archivists, she reports that some sought to discourage her when they learned what materials she was seeking, including the records of the US Army's scandalously flawed 2001 investigation of the No Gun Ri massacre of 1950, when the US military killed 250 to 300 South Korean refugees, mostly women and children.4 "[T]he reactions of some staff reminded me of the formidable ethos created by American nationalism surrounding the nation's historical involvement in foreign wars," she writes. "Some viewed [End Page 746] the civilian casualties at No Gun Ri and elsewhere as an affront to American identity and honor."5 Even the oral history work in South Korea could prove difficult, as some survivors simply did not want to reawaken traumatic memories. Despite this, she persevered, and not only retrieved vital documents, but also accumulated devastating accounts, from fifty-seven individuals interviewed beginning in 2007,6 of what happened to ordinary Korean families, of mass murder, cruelty, and brutality, accounts that can be painful to read. Hwang, who holds a University of Chicago doctorate, is naturally aware of the historians' debate over "the demand for objectivity that prioritizes written records over the spoken word." However, "the notion of human rights has depended on 'imaginative identification' with a victim and their emotions," she writes, and "for this reason, personal narratives of survivors and bereaved families are given an important place alongside documentary research."7 In addition, official South Korean records of such atrocities are sparse. The six-chapter work, which focuses on the war's dark underside, not its military history, begins with "Terror in Cheju Island," a chapter describing the 1948 to 1949 counterinsurgency on that island off Korea's southern coast. It was a paroxysm of killing that left between 30,000 to 80,000 islanders dead, most of them noncombatants, according to estimates cited by Hwang.8 The bloodshed was rooted in a conflict between a left-leaning People's Committee that had run the autonomous-minded island since Korea's north-south division at World War II's end, and a rightist governor, abusive paramilitaries, and national police imposed on the islanders from Seoul. Insurgent attacks on police provoked a...

Whose War Was It?: African American Heritage Claims and the Second Seminole War

Whose War Was It?African American Heritage Claims and the Second Seminole War C. S. Monaco (bio) Clearly, blacks and Seminoles cooperated during the resistance, and some blacks acted as interpreters, messengers, and even advisors to Seminole leaders. From those facts, however, an unsupportable logical leap precedes the conclusion that interpreting, advising, carrying messages, and knowing about white men equate with ruling. Susan A. Miller, “Seminoles and Africans under Seminole Law”1 Contentious heritage claims based on rival notions of agency and empowerment during the Second Seminole War (1835–42) have surfaced from a group of scholars and from amateur historians who promote the unorthodox idea that African Americans, rather than Indigenous people, constituted the real “backbone” of military resistance.2 Competing claims often accompany memories of war, as victors and losers inevitably bring opposing versions of dramatic events that inflict death and suffering on a massive scale. In this case, however, rival assertions have arisen from the same side that fought and died together in the Florida wilderness in a long but ultimately ill-fated effort to thwart removal efforts by the United States Army. Historian Larry Rivers has recently inverted the standard paradigm of Seminole tragic heroes (Osceola being the most renowned) who led Indian warriors and their black allies into battle by reconfiguring the latter as the war’s principal leaders and by framing their motives as a slave rebellion, not an Indian war. In a fairly audacious move, Rivers even renamed the Second Seminole War as the “Black/Indian Rebellion,” thus rejecting the core concept that the war [End Page 31] was the second of three campaigns that were primarily aimed at Seminoles.3 Other authors, some without formal historical training, have espoused pricklier narratives; one has demanded that blacks reject history that has consigned them to the subservient role of playing “Tonto” to the Seminoles.4 High-end websites have also entered the picture and utilize new media to promote themes of African American volition in Florida.5 Various lectures, symposiums, and conferences, including one under the aegis of the National Park Service, additionally support the thesis of black empowerment and rebellion.6 All this has taken place despite the fact that leading historians of slavery and slave revolts, such as the late Eugene Genovese and Herbert Aptheker (both of whom would hardly have been deterred by controversy), are conspicuous by their omission of any such rebellion. Yet a romanticized freedom fighter motif—one that not only embodies the subaltern struggle against white oppression but also affirms a new power identity amid the Florida backwoods—continues to impact the memory of an extended seven-year conflict that has never been fully integrated into American history and is still poorly understood by nonspecialists. For this and myriad other reasons, such a radical retelling certainly warrants scrutiny. To date, only a single journal article by Seminole historian Susan A. Miller—a former professor of American Indian studies at Arizona State University—and a section in Miller’s book Coacoochee’s Bones have confronted the issue.7 In the former, Miller directed a blistering rebuke at those who “cast heroes of African resistance as stars, and made supporting players of the Seminole people.” Indeed, she declared that “Seminole place, identity and history” have been plundered “as raw materials for a triumphalist narrative celebrating the new thread in the history of [African American] people.”8 Despite such heated charges, the most characteristic reaction has been silence, a strong indication of the hazards awaiting historians who dare enter the fray—a veritable heritage minefield.9 At present the concept of black sovereignty appears oddly impervious to critique, and while some mainstream scholars have applauded Rivers, others—particularly military historians—have bypassed this perspective entirely while they continue to apply the standard narrative of Seminole leadership.10 Despite obvious obstacles, including the opposing claims of two groups who have long been oppressed and marginalized and whose historical traditions have been intensely politicized, this essay will nevertheless [End Page 32] attempt to place the notion of black sovereignty into much-needed critical context. Unlike Miller, who assumed a defensive posture in her article, focused on the period after removal, and aimed to...

Her Memorial: An Alternative Reading of Matthew 26:13

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)In Matt 26:6-13, an unidentified woman performs an extravagant act that stirs up controversy among the disciples. Jesus defends the woman, declaring the underlying significance of her deed: ... (Matt 26:13).In the history of scholarship, rendering ... as an objective genitive-that is, interpreting the feminine pronoun aiiT% as the object of the head noun ...-is virtually unanimous.1 Accordingly, Jesus's saying in Matt 26:13 identifies the woman as the object of memorial: wherever gospel is preached throughout the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her2 On reading, the anonymous nature of the woman's identity is called into question. Why, when Jesus intends to memorialize the woman, is she left unnamed by Matthew?Recent answers have varied considerably. Mainstream scholarship of the 1980s and 1990s has generally downplayed the woman's anonymity by limiting her comprehension of the deed's scope and significance. Although the woman performed a generous act, she did not necessarily intend to anoint Jesus.3 If the woman's act of pouring oil is differentiated from Jesus's interpretation of her act as an anointing, her role remains coincidental to the narrative. In way, the problem posed by her anonymity is minimized.Feminist biblical scholars have taken a much more critical stance on the issue.4 That the woman is stripped of her identity, so it is argued, is clear evidence of androcentric bias. Not only does Matthew fail to record the woman's speech, but her actual name is also omitted, which precludes the possibility of a proper memorial.5 These interpretations, however divergent, depend on reading ... as an objective genitive.The objective genitive, however, is not the only viable rendering of ... Another possibility is to take ... as a subjective genitive-the probability for which, at least based on New Testament usage, is statistically greater than the probability for the objective genitive.6 To be sure, what differentiates the two is not always obvious, nor does statistical probability necessarily settle the matter. Herein lies the tension. A. T. Robertson explains, [The subjective genitive] can be distinguished from the objective use only by the context. Sometimes the matter is not clear. This genitive is the common possessive genitive looked at from another angle. In itself the genitive is neither subjective nor objective, but lends itself readily to either point of view.7 Robertson's point is especially relevant for study since it supplies the basic premise for the argument that follows: identifying the use of the genitive in Matt 26:13 should ultimately appeal to evidence in the surrounding context.Despite the pliability of the genitive, most translations and commentaries on the First Gospel do not give any indication that a subjective genitive reading of ... is a possibility. There are a few exceptions that are worthy of mention.8 In New Testament in Modern English, J. B. Phillips offers the following rendering: this deed of hers will also be recounted, as her memorial to me9 A. T. Robertson's translation also gestures toward a subjective genitive: For a memorial of her.... This monument to Jesus fills the whole world with its fragrance, greater than even permanent memorials10 But the scholar who has most explicitly argued for a subjective genitive reading is J. Harold Greenlee. His remarks are suggestive, if underdeveloped, in a one-page note published in I960.11 The paucity of references in the history of interpretation and the brevity of Greenlee's remarks provide the occasion for the present study. Building on Greenlee's suggestion but departing slightly from his translation, I present a case for an alternative reading of Matt 26:13.I argue that a subjective genitive reading of ... is not only plausible based on Matthew's redaction of Mark 14:9 but also favorable, given Matthew's deliberate omission of the anointing of Jesus's body for burial as in Mark 16:1 (cf. …