scholarly journals What's at Stake? History Wars, the NMA and Good Government

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 134-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Marcus

I want to place the fate of the National Museum of Australia (NMA) in the context of some of the political strategies that underpin the electoral placidity and public acceptance of a government so radically reshaping Australian democratic institutions. A national museum that reaches and engages with a national constituency can be an important place for the vigorous public debate that democracy requires. In such a place, political doctrines and dogmas, cultural fantasies and assumptions, historical interpretations and good old common-sense may all be scrutinised as well as confirmed. Such a place sits beside schools and universities, public libraries and art galleries and festivals, each of which provides the opportunity for reflection as well as for congratulation. As with the other publicly funded but independent sites of public reflection, the National Museum is to be reined in and redirected. It is to become ‘balanced’. Nothing could more surely ring its death knell. In future, the museum’s visitors will reflect along the narrow and limited lines of carefully delineated ‘alternatives’ that in fact confine and constrain rather than enlarge understanding.

2021 ◽  
pp. 030631272110055
Author(s):  
Sarah Wadmann ◽  
Amalie Martinus Hauge

Personalized medicine raises the stakes of pharmaceutical market regulation. Drawing on pragmatist valuation studies and science and technology studies literature on personalized medicine and pharmaceutical markets, this article demonstrates how complex negotiations about the value of a pharmaceutical can constitute a market in various ways, while also shaping the concerned patient populations. Tracing the path of a pharmacogenetic treatment, Spinraza, from its approval by the European Medicines Agency to its adoption in the publicly funded Danish healthcare system, we show how the market was formatted through particular stratifications of the patient population. We conceptualize these seemingly technical moves as strategies of stratification, that is, the application of techniques to assemble and divide data – and what data are meant to represent – into groups delineated by certain characteristics. We argue that stakeholders’ use of strategies of stratification has important implications not only for market access, but also for the delineation of diseases and patient populations. Hence, it is crucial to make intelligible the mutual constitution of pharmaceutical markets and patient populations and the political efforts of delineating and connecting the two.


2010 ◽  
Vol 25 (64) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikkel Birk Jespersen

Mikkel Birk Jespersen: "Utopiens grænser i Den amerikanske revolution - Om utopiske tekststrategier i Common Sense og Letters from an American Farmer"AbstractMikkel Birk Jespersen: “Boundaries of Utopia in the American Revolution: On Utopian Text Strategies in Common Sense and Letters from an American Farmer”The article discusses the relations between utopia, literature and revolution in the American Revolution through an analysis of Tom Paine’s Common Sense (1776) and J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur’s Letters from an American Farmer (1782). It is arguedthat utopia constitutes a textual function whose ‘non-place’ or ‘point zero’ is not reducible to a political logic, but rather presents a challenge to it. In the revolution, however, the different logics of utopia and of the political can be said to confront each other, hereby illuminating the contradictions of both. The constellation of the two texts brings out the contradictory nature of utopia, as the texts have opposed approaches to the revolution and are characterised by two different utopian logics.


Author(s):  
Ruihui Han

Guanxi circle play a critical role in ancient China politics. Based on guanxi, two kinds of guanxi groups formed: formal guanxi circle and informal guanxi circle. The former refers to the group centered the emperor; the latter refers to the groups with the powerful and charismatic figures as the core, except for the emperor. In order to consolidate the political power, the emperors in different periods would try to prevent the informal guanxi circle in political structure. Besides, various scriptures also denounce the informal guanxi circle, deeming such circle as harmful. The judgement of informal guanxi circle appeals to research, as there is no previous researcher has address such problems. This study set out to examine whether the informal guanxi circle is harmful to the whole political structure. Results show that the informal guanxi circle, in the antecedent of satisfactory communication, can be extremely meaningful to the whole political structure. This study implies that the fact of informal guanxi circle is on the contrary of the common sense derived from the scriptures and the superficial ancient political activities, such as the emperor’s order to prevent the informal guanxi circle. The findings can contribute a better understanding of the ancient informal guanxi circle in ancient political structure in China.


2010 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 16-33
Author(s):  
Guy Hansen

In recent years one of the most important trends in the development of history exhibitions in major museums has been the use of interdisciplinary project teams for content development. This approach, often referred to as the team based model of content development, has, in many institutions, replaced older models of exhibition production built around the expertise of the curator. The implementation of team based models has had a profound impact on the way exhibitions are produced. When done well it has helped deliver exhibitions combining a strong focus on audience needs with in-depth scholarship and collections research. In some contexts, however, the tyranny of the team has given rise to a form of museological trench warfare in which different stakeholders struggle for creative control of an exhibition. In this article I will explore some aspects of the team based approach with reference to the development of the opening suite of exhibitions for the National Museum of Australia (NMA) in 2001. My observations are drawn from my experience as the lead curator of the Nation Gallery, one of the NMA’s opening exhibitions.


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