scholarly journals Decolonizing Knowledge, Education and Social Development: Africanist Perspectives

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 503-518
Author(s):  
Ali A. Abdi

Abstract Education is viewed, in general terms, as conductive to social development, intended her as the overall and contextual wellbeing of individuals, communities and societies. Both the ideational and select practices of development emerged and expanded in the past 70 or so years. With colonial education continuing unchallenged in ‘postcolonial’ Africa, complemented by the importation of prepackaged, non-functional development schemes, the need for knowledge and learning reconstructions are urgently needed in the continent. It is with that in mind that this paper undertakes both historical and actual analysis of the situation, beginning with the critical readings and relevant analytical, counter-colonial problematizations of Eurocentric and by extension, monocentric modalities of knowledge, education and development. To be sure, the arbitrary constructions of both the terra and persona Africana by European and Euro-American thought leaders who served as the theoretical vanguards for colonialism and contemporary global capitalist domination has led to, and sustains the current situation with respect to African educational and social development contexts. The appreciation of the historical analysis here, as critically attaching to current situations, is important in achieving the needed counter-Eurocentric discursive formations and related reconstructive educational and development possibilities.

Corpora ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-349
Author(s):  
Craig Frayne

This study uses the two largest available American English language corpora, Google Books and the Corpus of Historical American English (coha), to investigate relations between ecology and language. The paper introduces ecolinguistics as a promising theme for corpus research. While some previous ecolinguistic research has used corpus approaches, there is a case to be made for quantitative methods that draw on larger datasets. Building on other corpus studies that have made connections between language use and environmental change, this paper investigates whether linguistic references to other species have changed in the past two centuries and, if so, how. The methodology consists of two main parts: an examination of the frequency of common names of species followed by aspect-level sentiment analysis of concordance lines. Results point to both opportunities and challenges associated with applying corpus methods to ecolinguistc research.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Kaliel

The articles published in our Fall 2016 edition are connected loosely under the themes of public memory and the uses of identity in the past. We are thrilled to present to you three excellent articles in our Fall 2016 edition: The article "Dentro de la Revolución: Mobilizing the Artist in Alfredo Sosa Bravo's Libertad, Cultura, Igualdad (1961)" analyzes Cuban artwork as multi-layered work of propaganda whose conditions of creation, content, and exhibition reinforce a relationship of collaboration between artists and the state-run cultural institutions of post-revolutionary Cuba; moving through fifty years of history “’I Shall Never Forget’: The Civil War in American Historical Memory, 1863-1915" provides a captivating look at the role of reconciliationist and emancipationist intellectuals, politicians, and organizations as they contested and shaped the enduring memory of the Civil War; and finally, the article “Politics as Metis Ethnogenesis in Red River: Instrumental Ethnogenesis in the 1830s and 1840s in Red River” takes the reader through a historical analysis of the development of the Metis identity as a means to further their economic rights. We wholly hope you enjoy our Fall 2016 edition as much as our staff has enjoyed curating it. Editors  Jean Middleton and Emily Kaliel Assistant Editors Magie Aiken and Hannah Rudderham Senior Reviewers Emily Tran Connor Thompson Callum McDonald James Matiko Bronte Wells


Author(s):  
Karel Schrijver

How many planetary systems formed before our’s did, and how many will form after? How old is the average exoplanet in the Galaxy? When did the earliest planets start forming? How different are the ages of terrestrial and giant planets? And, ultimately, what will the fate be of our Solar System, of the Milky Way Galaxy, and of the Universe around us? We cannot know the fate of individual exoplanets with great certainty, but based on population statistics this chapter sketches the past, present, and future of exoworlds and of our Earth in general terms.


Urban Science ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 70
Author(s):  
Till Koglin ◽  
Lucas Glasare

This paper evaluates the history and cycling accessibility of Nova, a shopping centre established in Lund, Sweden, in 2002. The current situation was also analysed through observation and a literature review. Moreover, the study conducted a closer analysis of the history and role of the municipality based on further literature study and interviews with officials. The conclusion of the analysis indicates poor and unsafe bikeways caused by conflicts of interest between politicians, officials, landowners and the general public. It also depicts a situation in which the municipality’s master plan has been ignored, and, in contrast to the local goals, cycling accessibility at Nova has seen no significant improvement since the shopping centre was first established. The reasons for this, arguably, are a relatively low budget for bikeway improvements in the municipality, as well as a situation in which decision-makers have stopped approaching the subject, as a result of the long and often boisterous conflicts it has created in the past. Lastly, it must be noted that it is easy to regard the whole process of Nova, from its establishment to the current situation, as being symptomatic of the power structures between drivers and cyclists that still affect decision-makers at all levels.


2021 ◽  
pp. 146247452110115
Author(s):  
Robert Todd Perdue

While prisons are often seen as locally undesirable land uses (LULUs), nuance and historical analysis is needed to understand why this is not the case for all places, as well as why many of these “sites of acceptance” are layered upon legacies of resource extraction and environmental degradation. Central Appalachia has seen a shift from coalfields to prisonfields in the past three decades as policymakers turn to the incarceration industry to stem unemployment and depopulation as coal mining declines. Using the conceptual lens of trash, I contend that the literal trashing of the ecosystems of this region has been fostered by the metaphorical representation of Appalachians as “white trash.” In turn, the space is now viewed as a logical location for the deposition of “societal castoffs” in the form of prisoners.


2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Flavio D’Abramo

AbstractThe establishment of international sanitary institutions, which took place in the context of rivalry among the great European powers and their colonial expansion in Asia, allowed for the development of administrative systems of international epidemiological surveillance as a response to the cholera epidemics at the end of the nineteenth century. In this note, I reflect on how a historical analysis of the inception of international epidemiological surveillance and pandemic management helps us to understand what is happening in the COVID-19 pandemic today.


1991 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 417-455
Author(s):  
Susan Kellogg

Editor’s Note: Susan Kellogg’s article on anthropology and history continues our special series “History and the Other Social Sciences.” There will be one further article, by David Robertson, on political science and history. An expanded version of the whole series will then be published as a book by Duke University Press.The past, once considered the exclusive domain of historians and antiquarians, has increasingly been embraced by anthropologists. Today, it is difficult to find a major anthropological study that does not claim to offer a diachronic, processual, historical analysis. In examining 10 years of historical anthropological writing, I cover three broad topics in this essay. First, I explain the emergence of a more historical anthropology as a widespread response to a crisis in the conceptualization of culture. Second, I argue that while there are certain identifiable themes that cut across this literature, in general, it reflects long-standing topical interests within anthropology; I review this literature according to these topics rather than divide it into interpretive or cultural studies versus studies of political economy. Third, I try to assess this body of work critically. I concentrate here on anthropological history as both research and textual practice, as well as briefly examine anthropological uses of the concepts of time, colonialism, and structure and agency.


Author(s):  
Elīna Gailīte

The article “Problems of defining folk dance in Latvia today” examines the aspects that affect the current situation in Latvia, where folk dances are understood as both folk dances that have not been modified by choreographers, dances passed down through generations that can be danced every day, and stage folk dances, which are a type of art performed by folk dance ensembles, created by choreographers and dances adapted to the stage performance. The research aim is to identify and describe the problems that currently exist in the Latvian cultural space, where the definition of folk dances creates tension in the public space and ambiguous opinions among dancers. Nowadays, it is possible to identify such concepts as, for example, folk dance, ethnographic dance, authentic dance, traditional dance, folklore dance, folk dance, folk dance adaptation, field dance, folk ballet, etc. Consistent use of concepts is rarely seen in the documents and research of cultural policymakers and the historical and contemporary works of choreographers and researchers. Often they are only described in general terms. A survey conducted in 2019 shows that dancers consider stage folk dances to be folk dances, and often this separation of dances is not important for them. Another problem is the designation of folk dance ensembles where stage folk dance dancers are dancing. The term misleads; it suggests that folk dances are danced there. However, this designation is linked to its historical time of origin. It is not insignificant that the stage folk dance is more popular, more visible, and massively represented at the Song and Dance Festival. Thus, a part of the society associates it with our folk dances.


2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eileen Ka-May Cheng

“What is historiography?” asked the American historian Carl Becker in 1938. Professional historians continue to argue over the meaning of the term. This book challenges the view of historiography as an esoteric subject by presenting an accessible and concise overview of the history of historical writing from the Renaissance to the present. Historiography plays an integral role in aiding undergraduate students to better understand the nature and purpose of historical analysis more generally by examining the many conflicting ways that historians have defined and approached history. By demonstrating how these historians have differed in both their interpretations of specific historical events and their definitions of history itself, this book conveys to students the interpretive character of history as a discipline and the way that the historian’s context and subjective perspective influence his or her understanding of the past.


2017 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 465-487 ◽  
Author(s):  
GILLIAN MATHYS

AbstractThis article argues that on the borderland between eastern DRC and Rwanda, the past and its representations have been constantly manipulated. The cataclysmic events in both Rwanda and Congo since the 1990s have widened the gap between partial and politicized historical discourse and careful historical analysis. The failure to pay attention to the multiple layers in the production of historical narratives risks reproducing a politicized social present that ‘naturalizes’ differences and antagonisms between different groups by giving them more time-depth. This is a danger both for insiders and outsiders looking in. The answer is to focus on the historical trajectories that shape historical narratives, and to ‘bring history back in’.


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