scholarly journals Worlding Excavation Practices

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 889-903
Author(s):  
Kevin Pijpers
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Field Work ◽  
Angle Of Arrival ◽  
Assemblage Theory ◽  
Archaeological Knowledge ◽  
Sensory Studies

Abstract This paper seeks to do justice to the often complex, messy, and sometimes ambiguous meaning making practices of archaeological field work. Taking recent adoptions of assemblage theory and sensory studies in archaeology as an angle of arrival, I contribute here to discussions on self-reflective and interpretive archaeology. Drawing on empirical encounters with troweling and backfilling at the Ardnamurchan Transitions Project in western Scotland, I describe the production of archaeological knowledge in terms of storying: the coming into existence of an earthly archaeological world through sensory correspondences. I show how storying generates meaning and knowledge through correspondences of more proximate with more distant excavation practices and interplays between them. Furthermore, I propose that through storying, archaeological meaning making as well as knowledge production can be understood as worlding: the generation of sustained remembrances of earthly events with lively corresponding materials.

scholarly journals Hvordan kommer matematisk meningsskaping til syne i barns lek? En casestudie

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vigdis Flottorp
Keyword(s):  
Day Care ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Field Work ◽  
Care Centre ◽  
Mathematical Meaning ◽  
Children's Play ◽  
Physical Context ◽  
Children’S Play ◽  
Day Care Centre

Title: Mathematical meaning making in children’s play? Verbal and non-verbal forms of expressionsAbstract: I analyze an episode from field work in a multilingual day-care centre in Oslo. I examine verbal and non-verbal expressions. The children are 5 years old, and the mathematics is about classification. The children are creating structure and are seeking meaning. This is a key part of their play. My findings indicate that mathematical order and structure become conscious experiences to the children. I argue that we cannot know about the children’s mathematical and communicative competence without knowing the physical context, the play in the sandpit, and the friendship between the boys.

Who Writes about Archaeology? An Intersectional Study of Authorship in Archaeological Journals

2020 ◽  
Vol 85 (3) ◽  
pp. 407-426 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura E. Heath-Stout
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Strong Correlation ◽  
Gender Parity ◽  
Quantitative Studies ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
Archaeological Knowledge ◽  
Equity And Inclusion ◽  
Binary Gender ◽  
Demographic Variation

Since the 1980s, activist archaeologists have used quantitative studies of journal authorship to show that the demographics of archaeological knowledge production are homogeneous. This literature, however, focuses almost exclusively on the gender of archaeologists, without deeply engaging with other forms of identity or adequately addressing the methodological limitations of assigning binary gender identifications based on first names. This paper rectifies these limitations through an intersectional study of inequities in academic archaeological publications by presenting the results of a survey of authors who published in 21 archaeology journals over a 10-year period (2007–2016). This survey asked them to provide their self-identifications in terms of gender, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation. The results demonstrate that although there has been an influx of women archaeologists in recent decades, we have not yet reached gender parity. They also show that because many women archaeologists are cisgender, white, and heterosexual, the discipline's knowledge producers remain relatively homogeneous. Furthermore, although there is demographic variation between journals, there is a strong correlation between journal prestige and the percentage of authors who are straight, white, cisgender men. This intersectional study of journal authorship demographics provides a comprehensive perspective on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the discipline of archaeology.

scholarly journals Archaeological Knowledge Production and Global Communities: Boundaries and Structure of the Field

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 350-364 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rimvydas Laužikas ◽  
Costis Dallas ◽  
Suzie Thomas ◽  
Ingrida Kelpšienė ◽  
Isto Huvila ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
English Language ◽  
Cultural Identities ◽  
Archaeological Heritage ◽  
The Public ◽  
Scientific Paradigms ◽  
Archaeological Knowledge ◽  
Public Imagination ◽  
Theoretical Considerations

Abstract Archaeology and material cultural heritage enjoys a particular status as a form of heritage that, capturing the public imagination, has become the locus for the expression and negotiation of regional, national, and intra-national cultural identities. One important question is: why and how do contemporary people engage with archaeological heritage objects, artefacts, information or knowledge outside the realm of an professional, academically-based archaeology? This question is investigated here from the perspective of theoretical considerations based on Yuri Lotman’s semiosphere theory, which helps to describe the connections between the centre and peripheries of professional archaeology as sign structures. The centre may be defined according to prevalent scientific paradigms, while periphery in the space of creolisation in which, through interactions with other culturally more distant sign structures, archaeology-related nonprofessional communities emerge. On the basis of these considerations, we use collocation analysis on representative English language corpora to outline the structure of the field of archaeology-related nonprofessional communities, identify salient creolised peripheral spaces and archaeology-related practices, and develop a framework for further investigation of archaeological knowledge production and reuse in the context of global archaeology.

From Drawing into Digital: On the Transformation of Knowledge Production in Postexcavation Processing

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1506-1528
Author(s):  
Felix Rösch
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Northern Germany ◽  
Production Of Knowledge ◽  
Methodological Tool ◽  
Digital Methods ◽  
Archaeological Knowledge ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Processing Steps

Abstract Digital methods have undoubtedly become an integral part of archaeology in recent decades. This has had a major impact on how archaeological knowledge is produced. Accordingly, there has been a recent increase in the number of studies addressing this issue and calling for a reflexive approach. Although studies have so far focused on the changes in knowledge production in fieldwork practices, studies of postexcavation processes are rare. This way of archaeological knowledge production is described using the analysis of old excavation documentation of the medieval waterfront of Schleswig, northern Germany, through geographic information system. It is achieved by an approach that combines the methodological tool of a chaîne opératoire with concepts based on the actor-network theory, whereby the production of knowledge is understood as a translation network. The approach reveals the individual processing steps and how the data change. Accordingly, for each step, not only are the applied practices described in detail, but also the influence of actors, devices, and documents is mentioned. This allows not only a critical reflection of the approach and a review of the interpretation, but also demonstrates that profound archaeological findings are possible despite data alteration through digital methods.

Thinking through Urban Place, Space and Locality in Youth Research

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharmla Rama ◽  
Thereso O T Mathonsi
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Spatial Turn ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
Everyday Lives ◽  
Childhood And Youth ◽  
The Social ◽  
Youth Research

The interdisciplinary “spatial turn” (and “mobilities turn”) within sociology and the social sciences and humanities has given rise to renewed interest in the conceptual frameworks and theorisation of place, space and locality (localities). In contemporary child (childhood) and youth research, immediate place, space and localities are powerful frameworks for understanding and examining young people’s everyday lives, realities, biographies as well as meaning making, construction of their identities and sense of belonging or exclusion. The emplaced hierarchies, inequalities, power relations and differentiations—in combination with innate, biographical, proximal and distal influences—will shape and direct young people’s interactions, activities and networks within and across different places, spaces and localities. There remains a lacuna regarding such research in developing countries, including South Africa post-1994. This paper examines how and why the concepts of space, place, and locality are of significance and contribute to an understanding of urban young people’s diverse everyday lives, challenges, needs and experiences. This paper focuses, firstly, on a discussion of the contested, conflicting and varying constructions of the concepts place, space and locality. Secondly, there is a discussion on some of the themes, debates and discourses shaping knowledge production in this area.

An Ode to Wildseeds

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 98-115
Author(s):  
Nathan Alexander Moore
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Social Power ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Black Girls ◽  
Creative Processes ◽  
Personal Experiences

Charting my personal experiences with Saving Our Lives Hear Our Truths (SOLHOT), I argue that centering the lived experiences of Black girls and including their creative forms of expression and knowledge production allow for a rearticulation of forms of agency, social power, and meaning making. Thinking specifically about the ways Black girls are stereotyped and pathologized, I discuss how Black girls create, talk back, and resist through their creative processes of dance, play, and art.

scholarly journals Curating Archaeological Knowledge in the Digital Continuum: from Practice to Infrastructure

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Costis Dallas
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Grand Challenge ◽  
Digital Information ◽  
Digital Curation ◽  
Interdisciplinary Field ◽  
Archaeological Work ◽  
Archaeological Knowledge

AbstractAs a “grand challenge” for digital archaeology, I propose the adoption of programmatic research to meet the challenges of archaeological curation in the digital continuum, contingent on curation-enabled global digital infrastructures, and on contested regimes of archaeological knowledge production and meaning making. My motivation stems from an interest in the sociotechnical practices of archaeology, viewed as purposeful activities centred on material traces of past human presence. This is exemplified in contemporary practices of interpretation “at the trowel’s edge”, in epistemological reflexivity and in pluralization of archaeological knowledge. Adopting a practice-centred approach, I examine how the archaeological record is constructed and curated through archaeological activity “from the field to the screen” in a variety of archaeological situations. I call attention to Çatalhöyük as a salient case study illustrating the ubiquity of digital curation practices in experimental, well-resourced and purposefully theorized archaeological fieldwork, and I propose a conceptualization of digital curation as a pervasive, epistemic-pragmatic activity extending across the lifecycle of archaeological work. To address these challenges, I introduce a medium-term research agenda that speaks both to epistemic questions of theory in archaeology and information science, and to pragmatic concerns of digital curation, its methods, and application in archaeology. The agenda I propose calls for multidisciplinary, multi-team, multiyear research of a programmatic nature, aiming to re-examine archaeological ontology, to conduct focused research on pervasive archaeological research practices and methods, and to design and develop curation functionalities coupled with existing pervasive digital infrastructures used by archaeologists. It has a potential value in helping to establish an epistemologically coherent framework for the interdisciplinary field of archaeological curation, in aligning archaeological ontologies work with practice-based, agencyoriented and participatory theorizations of material culture, and in matching the specification and design of archaeological digital infrastructures with the increasingly globalized, ubiquitous and pervasive digital information environment and the multiple contexts of contemporary meaning-making in archaeology.

Using one’s body: sex, money and agency from the coast to the backlands of Northeast Brazil

2020 ◽  
pp. 146470012092076
Author(s):  
Loreley Gomes Garcia ◽  
Jose Miguel Nieto Olivar
Keyword(s):  
Young Women ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Personal Narratives ◽  
Northeast Brazil ◽  
Regional Economies ◽  
Main Argument ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Women’S Views

This article presents a discussion about using one’s body – in its several occurrences, forms and meanings – for sex, affection and money transactions, within and beyond the scope of prostitution. It results from research carried out with young women involved in prostitution in two Brazilian north-eastern towns. The women’s views, conceptualisations and experiences reveal a prolific construction of discursive differentiation categories, which are linked to a set of moralities within local/regional economies and within notions of family. Through the women’s personal narratives and experiences, our study demystifies the persistent idea of victimisation; it aims at understanding the young women prostitutes in their own contexts – loci that are highly stigmatised and seen as needing to be controlled or ‘developed’. We collected data that allows us to build a counter-discourse to oppose the ever-present attempts at weakening these voices and effacing their meaning-making. Within this context of knowledge production, our research is meaningful and purposeful in addressing the situation of young women in contexts of prostitution. Our main argument is that in certain contexts, such as those studied in this project, sex, affection and kinship are structured as normative – rather than exceptional – ways for women to have access to money.

The Epistemological and Ethical Challenges of Archiving and Sharing Qualitative Data

2018 ◽  
Vol 63 (6) ◽  
pp. 699-721 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shelley Feldman ◽  
Linda Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Public Access ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Context Specificity ◽  
Ethical Problems ◽  
Use Of Data ◽  
Qualitative Evidence ◽  
Data Production

This article identifies the epistemological and ethical problems that accompany the growing mandate to archive and share qualitative data. We call attention to the potential consequences of “shared access” for data that is premised on meaning-making and interpretation embedded in interactions between the researcher and those they study. We argue that context specificity and the co-constitutive processes of qualitative data production preclude the separation of “evidence” from the relations of its production that is required when evidence is archived for future use by others. Furthermore, we identify the ethical challenges that attend to ensuring the rights and confidentiality of those we engage and the particular concerns such engagement entails for vulnerable populations when securing informed consent for the use of data by future unknown researchers. Finally, we ask whether the claim for greater efficiencies and accountability of public access are appropriate for the co-constitutive character of qualitative evidence and what these demands portend for knowledge production. We conclude by calling for the development of protocols to guide researchers who are sensitive to these issues but must respond to calls to archive and share their data.

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