‘To stay, serve and witness’ – church politics and British inner cities in the 1980s

By analysing the Church of England's 1985 report Faith in the City (FITC), this article demonstrates that the church played a decisive role in shaping the discourse on British ‘inner cities’. Following a brief historical contextualization, the article examines the FITC report itself, how it came about and what arguments the Church of England introduced into the national debate on inner cities, as well as the media and political discussion that followed its publication and the reactions in the religious field. The article argues that the publication was a turning point in the inner cities discourse of the 1980s. It examines how the church succeeded in (re)directing national attention to the topic thereby countering the territorial stigmatization and replacing it with a more positive view focused on the potential of the residents living in the inner cities.

Construcción identitaria de la inmigración en el paisaje madrileño: Lavapiés y San Diego

This article explores comparatively the strategies of construction and identity negotiation that the new ethnic and linguistic groups have reflected in Lavapiés and San Diego, two areas characterized by the highest percentage of international immigration, within Madrid. After the social and historical contextualization of both territories —to provide a more complete picture of its evolution— two collections of images or cartographies containing samples related to diversity in each territory will be analyzed from a methodological approach based on the exploratory analysis of the linguistic landscape. These parcours will allow to analyze the construction of multiculturality and otherness, which also goes hand in hand with seemingly opposite phenomena: from gentrification to a new definition of folk identity.

Corporate Colonization of Blackness – The Representation of Blackness in the National Basketball Association from 1984 to 2005

In light of current social justice dynamics, this article examines marketing strategies employed by the NBA (and associated companies) to sell predominantly Black athletes to a chiefly White audience. Through historical contextualization and critical analysis, the NBA’s development from a non-profitable and scorned circus to a multi-faceted and multi-billion-dollar global attraction is explored. From the earliest league structures until the 1980s, a dichotomy between Black and White players (and the values/stigma they embodied) dominated the sport of Basketball. This however changed with the rise of Michael Jordan to fame. Jordan became the first basketball player who transcended these racial lines in terms of associated values and/or stigmas. Simultaneously, His Airness’ rise to global fame let the NBA’s popularity soared into astronomical spheres. A shiny Black Superhero was born, yet his public image is predominantly inspired by corporate considerations – a case of corporate colonization of Black bodies. Black players’ transgressions and the NBA’s reactions to those – as happened in the Malice in the Palace (2005) incident – highlight the conflicting lines along which the NBA constructs and presents its players with a clear tendency towards corporate colonization, a concept which will be outlined in the paper. Through critical historical reading of past corporate efforts, this article re- and deconstructs the strategic illustration of Black athletes.

Archaeological and Chemical Investigation on the High Imperial Mosaic Floor Mortars of the Domus Integrated in the Museum of Archaeology D. Diogo de Sousa, Braga, Portugal

This paper intends to characterize the floor mortar layers (nucleus, rudus and statumen) of the high imperial mosaics of the domus integrated in the Museum of Archeology D. Diogo de Sousa, the oldest roman housing testimonies known in Braga, Portugal. It offers an important archaeological and historical contextualization and first chemical characterization attempt on the mortars. The study of 13 mortar samples was carried out at a chemical level through X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF). All samples presented low lime content when compared to similar studies. A high chemical similarity between nucleus mortars (opus signinum) and chemical composition differences between rudus and statumen mortars was determined, confirmed by statistical analyses. Their composition was distinctly related to the stratigraphic position of each floor mortar layer, following Vitruvius’ model, and to the external conditions and treatments (e.g., capillary rise with soluble salts and application of chemical treatments), to which they were submitted.

چینی مسلم خواتین کی دینی تعلیم و تربیت: معھد الدراسات الاسلامیہ للبنات کے حوالے سے ایک خصوصی مطالعہ

This paper investigates the kind and extent of contribution of Hui Muslim women to the propagation of Islamic teachings and revival of Islamic education in China. It aims to explore the role that women led-educational institutes played in placing Muslim youth at a continuum between Chinese and Islamic educational spheres. The research employs ethnographic methodologies including participant observation and extensive interviewing and relies upon the archival data for the historical contextualization of the observed facts. It concludes that Islamic educational system in general, and the active passionate participation of Muslim women in it in particular, played a crucial role in the survival of Islamic faith and knowledge in the Chinese land and helped its adherents to connect with the mainstream Muslim world, transcending regional and cultural boundaries.

April Sizemore-Barber. Prismatic Performances: Queer South Africa and the Fragmentation of the Rainbow Nation

A series of fascinating case studies, April Sizemore-Barber’s Prismatic Performances contributes to the growing field of South African performance studies. While in need of greater theoretical and historical contextualization, this is a well-written and engaging text, based on meticulous ethnographic research.

The Political Sociology of 21st-Century Populism in Latin America: A Critique of the Ecuadorian Case

This paper calls into question the universal application of the concept of populism. It points to how particular historical processes need to be taken into account when addressing the formation of populism in Latin American countries. Unlike more theorized cases as Argentinian or Mexican populism, I use the Ecuadorian case to show how critical historical contextualization of 21st-century populism requires analyzing the continuities and ruptures with sociological knowledge about a particular populism. Such an analysis of continuities and ruptures shows the theoretical convergences among Latin America as a region and the political dynamics of specific historical processes. I highlight how the conceptions of 21st-century Ecuadorian populism as a “passive revolution” or “authoritarian disfigurement of democracy” provide some theoretical tools for examining the historical process of Ecuadorian populism but ultimately fall short of critical analysis. In conclusion, I derived from the Ecuadorian case some elements for the analysis of Latin American populist projects.

Cartas para minha mãe, de Teresa Cárdenas: racismo e resistência na voz de uma literata negra

The aim of this work is to analyze racism from the perspective of the main character —a child, black and orphaned— from the novel Cartas para minha mãe, by contemporary Cuban writer Teresa Cárdenas. The narrative develops around a character who did not have what we call childhood today, and who thus enters adolescence. However, our focus will be on the black condition of the narrator, who at all times suffers from the most diverse types of prejudices, in addition to having to deal with a difficult phase: the transition from childhood to puberty. In this way, this work intends to discuss the issues involving childhood surrounded by prejudices of the main character of Cárdenas' novel, while we will observe the reactions and perceptions of the child in face of racism. For the analysis of the novel, the narrator's childhood, the historical contextualization of the colonization process in Latin America and the psychosocial process of the feeling of inferiority of blacks and of superiority of white, we will use the texts of the following scholars: Cabo Aseguinolaza (2001); Ariès (1981); Fanon (2008); Gates (2014) and Souza (2015), among other theoretical texts. In the end, we realized that in the novel by Teresa Cárdenas the weight of racism leads the narrator to seek help in the letters she writes to her dead mother. The racism present in the text builds as a sample of what several people go through every day of their lives.

Reawakening the Curious Muses

This conversation between the founding and current directors of the multi-award-winning Medical Museion at the University of Copenhagen was held online, COVID-19-style, in the spring of 2021. We have different backgrounds and instincts. One of us is an academic historian of science, who almost accidentally ended up also running a museum. The other has spent decades working in museums, and then found himself hired as a university professor. Here we discuss the evolution of Medical Museion over the last two decades—the Museion concept, the integration of research and curatorship, the interaction of art and science, the balance between historical contextualization and aesthetic “presence,” the Faustian pact with foundations, and so forth—plus some visions for its future development.