Reading Dalit Autobiographies in English: A Top Ten List

Dalit autobiography has joined protest poetry as a leading genre of Dalit Literature since the nineteen seventies. Finding their inspiration in the social and political activism of B. R. Ambedkar (1891-1956), leader of the India’s anti-caste movement and a founding father of the Republic, low caste men and women have documented their struggles and victories in the face of ongoing violence and deprivation. Surveying ten life narratives translated into English from Marathi, Hindi, and Kannada, the essay treats works by Ambedkar, Daya Pawar, Sharankumar Limbale, Baby Kamble, Laxman Gaikwad, Siddhalingaiah, Omprakash Valmiki, Urmila Pawar, Vasant Moon and Namdeo Nimgade. Tracing the origins of Dalit autobiography in the writings of Siddharth College and Milind College students in the 1950s, protest writers in the 1960s, and the Dalit Panthers and their followers in the 1970s, the survey identifies recurring themes of social exclusion, poverty, patriarchy, survival and assertion in the realms of politics, employment, education, and religion. These intimate testimonials share a radical vision of social transformation across caste, class, gender, linguistic and geographic boundaries and provide a needed corrective to mainstream portraits of modern Indian social history.

A Justified Plan Graph Analysis of Social Housing in Mexico (1974–2019): Spatial Transformations and Social Implications

Space Syntax researchers have asserted that the spatial configuration of the planning of a work of architecture, such as a house, reflects how social properties are inscribed in its design. In social housing, the social inscriptions through space, which promote a particular way of dwelling, are not initially determined by the inhabitants. However, through appropriation, inhabitants mold the space to their liking, challenging preconceived ways of dwelling. Therefore, this research aims to determine what kinds of social structures the spatial configuration of social housing are promoting and how the inhabitants' transformations have altered the spatial experience. Mexico's housing sector developed from a “welfare approach” in the nineteen seventies and eighties to a “market rationale” since the nineties. During this time, different dwelling perspectives were inscribed in the spatial configuration of the homes. Using the justified plan graph (JPG) method, six social housing dwellings from these two time periods, Welfare State and market rationale, are spatially analyzed, both in their original design and in the resulting design from their inhabitant's modifications. Graph analysis is used in this paper for providing spatial insights into social housing design and its users' transformations, while pointing to further research needs.

From mathematical linguistics to philology: Some remembered impressions

The author recalls her youth in Wroclaw where Jerzy Woronczak — a philologist and one of the pioneers in applying mathematical linguistics to literary analysis — worked. Woronczak was a true master for his students in the nineteen-seventies and eighties. It is interesting to trace the paradoxical journey from traditional Polish philology to mathematical linguistics, semiotics and structuralism fifty years ago, and from them to the new philology as a phenomenon of digital humanities.

A tainted reputation it deserves? Crime in the trotting sector of Dutch horse racing

The Netherlands are a small country with an urban underworld history before a serious problem of organized crime has developed since the 1980. The interest of the mob in Horse Race Betting flourished before that time. After a long period of Prohibition since 1911 horse racing (especially trotting) and betting on the results has become a very popular pastime since it was permitted in 1948. Especially during the nineteen seventies and eighties horse races drew a large audience and to a lesser degree they still do. However, bookmaking has always been forbidden since 1911 and that by itself presented in invitation to (organized) crime. Other well-known criminal byproducts of horse racing such as drugging horses, laundering money and matchfixing have been observed but as we measured only to a very moderate degree. The social variety of aficionados for the races is amazing. While doing historical and ethnographic field research at the race tracks we registered a mixture of people of humble origins as well as big entrepreneurs. There were members of the royal family but also well-known criminals. It is amazing to find out to what degree the latter have been accepted by the entire horse racing community.

Reduced Carbonation, Sulfate and Chloride Ingress Due to the Substitution of Cement by 10% Non-Precalcined Bentonite

The Portland cement industry is presently deemed to account for around 7.4% of the carbon dioxide emitted annually worldwide. Clinker production is being reduced worldwide in response to the need to drastically lower greenhouse gas emissions. The trend began in the nineteen seventies with the advent of mineral additions to replace clinker. Blast furnace slag and fly ash, industrial by-products that were being stockpiled in waste heaps at the time, have not commonly been included in cements. Supply of these additions is no longer guaranteed, however, due to restrained activity in the source industries for the same reasons as in clinker production. The search is consequently on for other additions that may lower pollutant gas emissions without altering cement performance. In this study, bentonite, a very common clay, was used as such an addition directly, with no need for precalcination, a still novel approach that has been scantly explored to date for reinforced structural concrete with structural applications. The results of the mechanical strength and chemical resistance (to sulfates, carbonation and chlorides) tests conducted are promising. The carbonation findings proved to be of particular interest, for that is the area where cement with mineral additions tends to be least effective. In the bentonite-bearing material analysed here, however, carbonation resistance was found to be as low as or lower than that observed in plain Portland cement.

Decrease of Carbonation, Sulfate and Chloride Ingress due to the Substitution of Cement by 10% of Non Calcined Bentonite

Clinker production is being reduced worldwide in response to the need to drastically lower greenhouse gas emissions. The trend began in the nineteen seventies with the advent of mineral additions to replace clinker. Blast furnace slag and fly ash, industrial by-products that were being stockpiled in waste heaps at the time, have not commonly been included in cements. Supply of these additions is no longer guaranteed, however, due to restrained activity in the source industries for the same reasons as in clinker production. The search is consequently on for other additions that may lower pollutant gas emissions without altering cement performance. In this research bentonite, a very common clay, was used as such an addition directly, with no need for pre-calcination, an still novel approach that has gone little explored to date for reinforced concrete with structural applications. The results of the mechanical strength and chemical resistance (to sulfates, carbonation and chlorides) tests conducted are promising. The carbonation findings proved to be of particular interest, for that is the area where cement with mineral additions tend to be least effective. In the bentonite-bearing material analysed here, however, carbonation resistance was found to be low as or lower than observed in plain Portland cement.

You’re an Orphan When Science Fiction Raises You

In Among Others, Jo Walton’s fairy story about a science-fiction fan, science fiction as a genre and archive serves as an adoptive parent for Morwenna Markova as much as the extended family who provide the more conventional parenting in the absence of the father who deserted her as an infant and the presence of the mother whose unacknowledged psychiatric condition prevented appropriate caregiving. Laden with allusions to science fictional texts of the nineteen-seventies and earlier, this epistolary novel defines and redefines both family and community, challenging the groups in which we live through the fairies who taught Mor about magic and the texts which offer speculations on alternative mores. This article argues that Mor’s approach to the magical world she inhabits is productively informed and futuristically oriented by her reading in science fiction. Among Others demonstrates a restorative power of agency in the formation of all social and familial groupings, engaging in what Donna J. Haraway has described as a transformation into a Chthulucene period which supports the continuation of kin-communities through a transformation of the outcast. In Among Others, the free play between fantasy and science fiction makes kin-formation an ordinary process thereby radically transforming the social possibilities for orphans and others.

The Age of Artificial Intelligences: A Personal Reflection

The following paper presents both a historical and personal account of the societal and ethical issues arising in the development of artificial intelligence, tracking, where I was involved, the issues from the nineteen seventies onward. My own involvement in the AI narrative begins with the early discussions around whether machines can think. These first discussions, in time, evolved secondly, with the rise of the internet in the nineties, into perceptions of AI as distributed intelligence, addressing its impact on social structures including basic ethical issues arising in daily life. Thirdly, in the sweeping application of AI to all kinds of societal goals and contexts, the awareness that all natural and artificial things might be digitally connected with each other and to human agents led my further involvement in the AI narrative. Tracing this evolution from start to finish, I conclude my own narrative in the history of AI by presenting some of the future challenges for the development and use of artificial intelligences. Through the application of recent research in academia, scientific associations and political bodies, I address the possibilities for the good life, both with and without artificial intelligences.

Identidad profesional y socialización de género: un estudio desde la manualística escolar en la España democrática

The construction of professional identity is a concept that holds interest for a variety of disciplines such as Anthropology, Psychology or Pedagogy. From the perspective of social constructivism, it has a narrative, dynamic character and is shaped by the interaction of the subject with current socio-historical discourses and their interiorization. During the decade of the nineteen seventies, the labor market in Spain experienced a massive incorporation of women, brought about by social and legislative advances in education and employment. The years of Spanish democracy are essential in the configuration and renewal of female identity in the economic field. This article focuses on the influence of the school textbook - the main didactic resource used in formal education - in this configuration. It presents models and stereotypes linked to gender, with a potential influence on the transmission and configuration of a biased socio-labor culture. In order to study this influence, our research examines a total of 20 elementary education textbooks in the areas of Language and Social Sciences in two periods of democratic Spain —the so-called Transition period and the current moment—, to explore the professional identity of women linked to the economic socialization as this is conveyed through this educational tool. Our results reveal a minimal inclusion of women as economic subjects in the textbooks; the underrepresentation of females performing paid activities, as well the lack of professional diversity serve to highlight a substantial inequality in the socialization processes between men and women, contrary to the goals of coeducational teaching values.