Spectacular memory: Zombie pasts in the themed shopping malls of Dubai

Memory invariably involves sifting and sorting historical traces and reassembling them into societal representations of the past. Usually this has been done by social groups of different kinds or the cultural institutions associated with them, and has provided materials for the construction and maintenance of group identity. In what I term “spectacular memory,” however, the sifting and sorting of memory traces is performed by commercial and media institutions within a globalized cultural framework to create spectacles for mass consumption. Spectacular memory is enabled by the progressive breakdown of Halbwach’s “social frameworks of memory”—the association of memory with face-to-face relations within social groups. In late modern societies, “memory” as a coherent body of representations which is the property of more-or-less bounded social groups has largely devolved into a globalized store of representations curated and diffused through the media, advertising, tourism and entertainment industries. This article uses the example of the history-themed shopping malls of Dubai to characterize this form of memory.

Towards advancing African management scholarship

Purpose This paper aims to address the main arguments put forward in Grietjie Verhoef’s article and contribute to a wider debate among management scholars on the role of indigenous theories. It challenges the view of African management as illusory and points to the rising support for indigenous theories as indicative of the weakening of the unquestioned dominance of universal theories. Design/methodology/approach This paper takes a conceptual and critically reflective approach, underpinned by a 360-degree evaluation of pertinent literature and theoretical arguments. Findings This paper reveals an underlying symmetry and interconnectedness, anchored on a shared communal ethos, among Afrocentric management concepts, specifically Ubuntu, Ekpe and Igbo apprenticeship systems. This symmetry points to an underlying indigenous management theory that begs to be further conceptualised, evidenced and advanced. Research limitations/implications This paper affirms Verhoef’s demand for Ubuntu, Ekpe, Igbo apprenticeship system to be more rigorously developed and theoretically coherent and urges scholars to intensify effort towards advancing the conceptual and empirical foundations of African management. Echoing Mahatma Gandhi’s timeless counsel, this paper calls on critics of African management to join the effort to bring about the change they wish to see in African management theorising. Social implications This paper disavows the alleged effort to impose a single “African management” model or perpetuate the “colonial/indigenous” binary divide but equally cautions against an effort to veto scholarly striving for a common identity, to learn from history or not embrace collective amnesia. As examples from the USA and Europe show, diversity, even heterogeneity, needs not to preclude the forging of a commonly shared identity complemented with appropriate sub-identities. Originality/value This paper links the African management-centred themes addressed by Verhoef to the wider debate among management scholars about lessening the dominance of universal theories and allowing space for context-resonant indigenous theories. It calls on African management scholars to invest the premium and intensified effort towards building a more robust and coherent body of indigenous theory that will have the capacity and efficacy to inform, explain and advance organisational practice and outcomes across Africa.

Boulding’s Psychic Capital: The Linking of Individual and Collective Identities

The purpose of this article is to establish that Kenneth E. Boulding, an economist whose work also encompassed many other disciplines, provided a valuable insight within the study of psychology. Boulding observed that while in an economic unit there is a store of financial capital which is necessary for continued existence, also in human nature there is a need for a reserve of psychic capital that is vital for the mental health of the individual and society. Psychic capital does this by providing a link consisting of positive feelings shared between the individual and the larger grouping. Boulding proposed that a coherent body of thoughts, memories, and emotions may be shared between individual and collective minds as shared psychic capital. Finally, some present-day examples are given whereby the consequences of a loss of psychic capital have been observed with particular emphasis on collective depression and suicide.

Entre augmentation et défaillance : Le développement du transhumanisme et le vacillement de l’identité humaine

"In this article, we will demonstrate that the image of the “posthuman” body revives the primary fantasy of a fragmented body, the first representation before the alienating and necessary identification with an intact and coherent body. By evoking the possibility of a return to this multiple body and by reviving the desire to experiment on this body, transhumanist discourses summon as many mortifying anxieties as jubilant hopes. Familiarization with the representation of the fragmented body would then make it possible to leave the current discursive terrain, mined and dichotomous, and to approach with more lucidity the inevitable impact of the development of technology on the human body."

Design-led events in collaborative planning: improving post-event planning and delivery

PurposeDesign-led events are known under a range of different titles such charrettes, participatory placemaking, co-design and enquiry by design. Rather than being standalone, such events form one single step in a multi-stage collaborative planning process. What comes after them has to be acknowledged as important to their effective contribution to collaborative planning. To date, no coherent body of empirical evidence on the aftermath of events has been published demonstrating critical factors that contribute to their success.Design/methodology/approachThe paper’s significance resides in identifying an extended framework for the stages in the collaborative planning process and in highlighting critical issues for ensuring that the aspirations and concerns expressed by stakeholders throughout the process are acted on and delivered, namely, subsequent decision-making and delivery; follow-on support, resourcing and funding; the legal status of events and related governance issues; and appropriate monitoring and evaluation practices.FindingsThe paper provides guidance for professional and local stakeholders who are expected to carry the burden of acting on the outputs arising from such events. To be successful, collaborative planning has to be based on longitudinal stakeholder engagement – both long before but also after such events. It is here that the significance of the results reported here lie.Originality/valueThe originality of this paper lies in its attempt to broaden understanding of what happens in collaborative planning following design-led events, drawing on interviews with professional and lay participants in events held across Scotland over the past decade.

“A Coherent Body of Thought and Action”

Chapter 1 defines grand strategy and international order. It then explores how rising powers displace hegemonic order through strategies of blunting, building, and expansion. First, the chapter argues that grand strategy is a theory of how a state can achieve security integrated across military, political, and economic means; and that finding it requires evidence of grand strategic concepts, capabilities, and conduct. Second, the chapter argues that international order emerges from a web of hierarchical relationships sustained by “forms of control” including coercion, inducement, and legitimacy—and that US-China competition is primarily over regional and global order. Finally, the chapter argues that rising powers can blunt a rival order by weakening its “forms of control” and build order by strengthening their own. Rising power perceptions of the hegemon’s power and threat shape the selection of rising power grand strategies.

Conclusion

The purpose of the Conclusion is to carve out the defining characteristics of technocratic internationalism and to discuss them critically. Reviewing the historical evidence, the first section of the Conclusion presents technocratic internationalism as a loose but distinct intellectual tradition. Since the late 19th century, varieties of technocratic internationalism have persisted in international theory and practice, even if they have never formed a particularly coherent body of thought. Technocratic internationalism has adapted to different ideological contexts, liberal and non-liberal alike. A history for technocratic internationalism is suggested here distinguishing four phases: pioneering, utopian, paradigmatic, and, eventually, that of disintegration. The second part of the chapter extracts from the historical material some recurring features of technocratic thought, such as the primacy of the expert in modern governance; the alleged objectivity of human needs, ecological imperatives, or technological necessities; and the ideal of ‘best solutions’ that can be universally implemented. This finding is related back to the politics-administration dichotomy. It helps to explore the contrast between governance based on disciplined reason-giving typical of expert discourse and administrative practice; and governance based on the execution of a political will, typical of international politics. Implications for the future of expert governance in international relations are discussed with regards to climate change and global pandemics.

Conclusion

The chapters in this volume affirm the value not only of specialized, discipline-specific research on the nature of well-being—its antecedents, and its consequences—but also of synthesizing interdisciplinary scholarship into a coherent body of research findings, theoretical explanations, and policy recommendations regarding well-being. Each of the 20 chapters makes a contribution to more than one scholarly discipline, and many bridge the social sciences and the humanities. In some cases, a disciplinary expert engaged with the methods or findings of an outside discipline. Other chapters were co-authored by scholars in the both humanities and social sciences. Still others were written by interdisciplinary experts. Beyond the individual chapters, the volume as a whole informs the meta-conversation about how scholars might draw on their specific expertise to transcend disciplinary boundaries and contribute to the collective work of conceptualizing and measuring well-being in ways that effectively advance our understanding of and ability to improve population health. In other words, we believe bringing together work from across often siloed disciplines will provide important insight regarding how individuals and social organizations can pursue the good life and build better societies. We hope that readers will appreciate each individual chapter on its own terms while also gaining a broader awareness of how the study of well-being might benefit from more sustained interdisciplinary dialogue. Ultimately, we hope our volume will encourage further efforts at synthesis by identifying and then building on areas of emerging consensus (see, for example, ...

Spontaneous formation of waves, channels and levees in geophysical mass flows

<p>Geophysical mass flows often break down into large amplitude wave pulses and/or spontaneously form channels with static levees in the arrest zone, enhancing overall run-out. This talk reviews recent depth-averaged models that are able to capture the formation of:- (i) rollwaves, (ii) erosion-deposition waves (which exchange mass with an erodible substrate) and (iii) channel and levee formation, within a single framework. The key is the inclusion of frictional hysteresis, which allows static and moving zones to coexist, as well as depth-averaged viscous terms that incorporate further details of the granular rheology. As well as being able to compute time-dependent spatially evolving solutions numerically, the resulting model allows steady-state solutions to be constructed for the height, width and depth-averaged velocity profile across a leveed channel, which are in good quantitative agreement with small scale analogue experiments using monodisperse dry sand. Colour change experiments are used to show that erosion-deposition waves really do propagate downslope as a wave, rather than a coherent body of grains, and that the presence of the erodible substrate gives them surprising mobility over very long distances. Photos and videos of the similar effects at field scale will be shown to emphasize the importance of these ideas for a wide range of geophysical mass flows. There are, however, still many open challenges in how to generalize these results to multiphase mixtures with broad grain size distributions.</p>