Canon Fodder and the Intimacy of Dialogues

Michael Burawoy’s 2021 essay, “Decolonizing Sociology: The Significance of W.E.B. Du Bois,” forges dialogues between the scholar denied and established theorists with the aim of reconstructing the sociological canon. My commentary situates the author’s essay and his own Du Boisian turn in a long career dedicated to reflexive science and recomposing theory. I reflect on the seemingly innocuous notion of a dialogue itself: its implications for sociological theory and practice, and how it supports decolonial efforts. Thinking with Toni Morrison, Hazel Carby, Lisa Lowe, and others, I offer a sketch of a decolonial methodology—what I call a Du Boisian shadowplay—that brings into view the intimate dimensions of imperialism. Ultimately, such a feminist methodology reconstructs dialogues that reflect on researcher standpoints and nested imperial histories; and in the face of today’s social crises, nurtures dialogues that are animated by an ethic of love.

O problema da linha de cor e a diferença cultural: raça, etnicidade e diáspora no século XXI

Em The Fateful Triangle (2017) Stuart Hall discute assuntos centrais sobre a formação da modernidade e contemporaneidade. Boa parte da estratégia de argumentação de Hall no livro se dá à luz de importantes categorias de análise frequentes nos enredos políticos da história da modernidade como “raça”, “etnicidade” e “nacionalidade”, tendo em vista suas correlações com a produção discursiva da noção de diferença. The Fateful Triangle faz parte de uma série de publicações da Universidade de Harvard baseadas em palestras (lectures) conferidas por especialistas de diversas áreas do conhecimento sobre temas explorados e tangenciados pelo sociólogo W.E.B. Du Bois - as W.E.B Du Bois Lectures organizada pelo professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. O objetivo desta resenha é articular a sociologia de Stuart Hall em The Fateful Triangle (2017) à luz da obra de W.E.B. Du Bois.

Synthesis of the Current Knowledge Concerning the Construction of French Traditional Cob Building for Giving Recommendations

The museum of the “Bourrine du bois Juquaud” is a tourist site located in the town of Saint Hilaire de Riez in France. It presents the daily life of the inhabitants of the marsh in the early twentieth century and their traditional earthen houses called Bourrine. The Bourrine is a cob construction with reed roof. The earth used for walls is soil from marshlands added with dune sand and straw fibres but some part are without fibres like coating applied on walls. By now, the knowledge acquired on the implementation of these mixtures for the lifting of the walls are oral knowledge and it is necessary to ensure the preservation of this traditional heritage. Currently the done reparations present cracks due to shrinkage. This study aims at well defining the mixtures by a scientific approach. The earth and dune sand were analyzed by taking cores from different existing bourrines and also by extracting soil on site. Different mixtures were produced by varying the proportion of earth sand and water. The linear shrinkage were measured. Corrections were done to get the best mixture for manufacturing and repairing the Bourrines.