Hyperinclusivity, Hypercanonicity, and the Future of the Field

Author(s):  
Constanze Güthenke ◽  
Brooke Holmes

The canon has long served as a means of controlling the information that the professional classicist, who is facing a vast field of potentially relevant material, can be expected to possess. But recent developments (e.g. the rise of reception studies, a broadened definition of the ancient Mediterranean, comparative antiquities) have put pressure on this strategy. In this chapter we consider the limitations of two possible responses to such a situation—what Sheldon Pollock has called ‘hypercanonicity’, a doubling down on the canon, and ‘hyperinclusivity’, an attempt to encompass everything—before advocating what we call the ‘open field’, an embrace of the many different and singular configurations of knowledge that are coming to define the classicist in the twenty-first century.

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 17-40
Author(s):  
Maciej Kryszczuk ◽  
Kamil Szymański

The authors discuss Yuval Noah Harari’s concept of dataism, which is part of a wider stream of debate on the future of civilization. Depending on the analytical perspective and the type of narration, dataism has been characterized as a kind of faith, an ideology, a worldview, or a set of (conscious) attitudes for which information is a kind of arche. The popularizer of the concept, the anthropologist Yuval Harari, argues that acts of dataism are a useful praxis of the twenty-first century, consisting in the deliberate – but also partly involuntary – entrusting of one’s life affairs (and not only) to algorithms that process data from popular digital devices such as a smartphone. Among the many significant effects thors point to changes in the spheres of work and capital which to produce a profound political and moral revolution.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 395-412
Author(s):  
Christy Tidwell

One of the many threats accompanying climate change is that of deadly viruses being revived or uncovered when the permafrost melts, as in the 2016 uncovering of anthrax in Siberia. Blood Glacier (Kren Austria 2013, originally Blutgletscher) addresses this in creature feature form, telling the story of something nasty emerging from the natural world (in this case, microorganisms emerging from a melting glacier) to threaten humans and human superiority. Blood Glacier reflects a larger twenty-first-century creature-feature trope of prehistoric creatures emerging from thawing ice as well as an expansion of ecohorror beyond familiar nature-strikes-back anxieties or fears of humans becoming food for animals. Instead, the microorganisms discovered within the glacier change people (and other animals), causing mutations and leading to the creation of new combinations of species. The film juxtaposes these environmental concerns with one character’s past abortion, which comes to represent another, more personal, challenge to Western values. As a result, the film asks questions not addressed by other similar creature features: Which life has value? What does the future look like, and who decides that? The film therefore addresses the ethics of bringing life into being, gesturing toward the responsibilities inherent both in bearing children and in choosing not to bear children. These questions are addressed in the end of the film, with the birth and then adoption of a mutant baby. By bringing these issues of reproduction and environmental futures together, the film asks us to consider how our past and current choices help shape the future - both personal and planetary. The conclusion of the film serves in part to reinforce heteronormativity and reproductive futurism, both of which stake the future on the replication of the past through traditional relationships and by reproducing ourselves and our values through our children. Simultaneously, however, it gestures toward new possibilities for queer, nonhuman, mutant kinship and care.


Web Portals ◽  
2011 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur Tatnall

In general terms a portal is just a gateway, and a Web portal can be seen as a gateway to the information and services on the Web. This chapter explores the definition of the word “portal” and attempts a categorisation of the various types of Web portals. It outlines some of the many uses for portals and shows that the portal concept is equally useful for accessing corporate intranets as for the public Internet. In conclusion the chapter looks at the proposition that the portal is dead and finds that any announcement to this effect is very much premature. Portals are everywhere and are likely to grow to even greater importance in the future.


Author(s):  
Kristen E. Boon

SummaryThe law of occupation has become the subject of great contemporary interest because of two prominent, although sui generis, situations: the long-term Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights and the “transformative” occupation of Iraq. In both situations, the occupying powers resisted the label of belligerent occupier and selectively applied the 1907 Hague Regulations and the 1949 Geneva Conventions to the territories in question. The unique circumstances of these occupations have sparked vigorous debate over the future of the law of occupation. To wit, is the widely accepted, but largely unenforced, law of occupation capable of regulating transitions between armed conflict and peace in the twenty-first century? This article examines recent developments in the notoriously open-textured law of occupation that have arisen as this law has been variously ignored, invoked, challenged, examined, and ultimately reformed through practice. In particular, it discusses the triggers for beginning and ending an occupation, including recent jurisprudence on the “effective control” test. The article examines who can be an occupier, the question of “multiple occupiers” under unified command, and the obligations of occupiers in the areas of legislation and institutional reform. The author also considers the challenges of UN involvement in transitional situations, including the applicability of the law of occupation to UN forces and the role of the Security Council in adapting the law of occupation. The author concludes with a discussion of the principle of “conservationism” and the relationship between the law of occupation and jus post bellum, in order to provide an assessment of possible “futures” of the law of occupation.


1970 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 277-291
Author(s):  
Charles C. West

“The technologists are asking the church and its thinkers to help them define the goals of their effort, and to co-determine guidelines for the application of their newly found power. They are asking for a definition of what is human so that moral suasion will reinforce technological reason in giving order to what is now a dangerously open field of experimentation. The revolutionaries are asking that their hope be subsidized at a moment when it threatens to go bankrupt. They want a confidence that, in fact, the way of transformation, of liberation in the foundations of our systems, is the direction of our future.”


1936 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 239-250
Author(s):  
M. H. H. Plaskett ◽  
MM. J. Baillaud ◽  
Beals ◽  
C. R. Davidson ◽  
Dufay ◽  
...  

The present report is the first for which this newly-formed Commission has been responsible. In view of this fact, and in view of the still exploratory nature of many investigations in spectrophotometry, as well as the need for the highest measure of individuality in the attack of the not simple problems involved, it would be premature to propose, simple though it might be to do so, any far reaching plans for co-operative schemes of investigation. These undoubtedly will play a part in the later work of the Commission, but what appears to be needed now is a closer definition of the aims of spectrophotometry, and at least a reference to the many branches of the subject where investigation is needed. The present report attempts to deal with these topics in three successive sections, concerned in turn with the unique property of spectrophotometric measures, the fields of application of spectrophotometry, and recent developments in a still incomplete and difficult technique.


1998 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 281-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith D. McDonald

This and the following six papers were selected from the many papers presented at the 9th World Congress of the International Association of Institutes of Navigation (IAIN) held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 17–21 November 1997.During the past several years, a number of important investigations, policy initiatives and national commitments relating to the future of GPS, GLONASS and their augmentations have occurred. Substantive and on-going studies of the character and configuration of a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) have also been evaluated worldwide, especially by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). These efforts have been principally directed toward the definition of near- and far-term GNSS implementations that meet the needs and concerns of the international community. This paper briefly reviews some of the investigations and addresses, in particular, the concerns and requirements that may affect the future capabilities and the dual (civil/military) character of GPS. The main issues relating to the modernisation of GPS and its subsequent transition to a component of a GNSS with a viable international character are presented. These include a discussion of new signal structure options, certain changes in operating frequencies, increased signal power levels, other system alternatives and their potential impact on system performance. International issues are briefly addressed, including future performance capabilities, assurance of service, economic participation and benefit, reasonable cost, standards and international participation.


2009 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura van Waas

AbstractOver the past decade, a deepening understanding of the gravity of the problem of statelessness, as well as the growing realisation that the international legal framework relating to statelessness exhibits numerous shortcomings, has made it clear that this issue warrants further engagement by the international community. This article looks more closely at statelessness as a fundamental challenge for Europe in the twenty-first century. The piece discusses why finding an appropriate response to statelessness can be deemed imperative, taking into account both human rights and human security considerations. To provide an impression of current opportunities for addressing statelessness, some of the strengths and limitations of the existing international legal framework relating to statelessness are presented. Finally, the article discusses a number of recent developments, in particular in Europe, which may open new avenues for meeting the challenge of statelessness in the future.


2012 ◽  
Vol 57 (11) ◽  
pp. 651-658 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph M Pierre

During the past century, the scope of mental health intervention in North America has gradually expanded from an initial focus on hospitalized patients with psychoses to outpatients with neurotic disorders, including the so-called worried well. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), Fifth Edition, is further embracing the concept of a mental illness spectrum, such that increasing attention to the softer end of the continuum can be expected in the future. This anticipated shift rekindles important questions about how mental illness is defined, how to distinguish between mental disorders and normal reactions, whether psychiatry is guilty of prevalence inflation, and when somatic therapies should be used to treat problems of living. Such debates are aptly illustrated by the example of complicated bereavement, which is best characterized as a form of adjustment disorder. Achieving an overarching definition of mental illness is challenging, owing to the many different contexts in which DSM diagnoses are used. Careful analyses of such contextual utility must inform future decisions about what ends up in DSM, as well as how mental illness is defined by public health policy and society at large. A viable vision for the future of psychiatry should include a spectrum model of mental health (as opposed to exclusively mental illness) that incorporates graded, evidence-based interventions delivered by a range of providers at each point along its continuum.


2017 ◽  
Vol 225 (3) ◽  
pp. 189-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tina B. Lonsdorf ◽  
Jan Richter

Abstract. As the criticism of the definition of the phenotype (i.e., clinical diagnosis) represents the major focus of the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) initiative, it is somewhat surprising that discussions have not yet focused more on specific conceptual and procedural considerations of the suggested RDoC constructs, sub-constructs, and associated paradigms. We argue that we need more precise thinking as well as a conceptual and methodological discussion of RDoC domains and constructs, their interrelationships as well as their experimental operationalization and nomenclature. The present work is intended to start such a debate using fear conditioning as an example. Thereby, we aim to provide thought-provoking impulses on the role of fear conditioning in the age of RDoC as well as conceptual and methodological considerations and suggestions to guide RDoC-based fear conditioning research in the future.


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