Human geography; cultural and social anthropology; migration, transnationalism; border studies

Grenze

by Ulf Scharrer

Co-authored with Judith Miggelbrink, Jürgen Paul, Daniel Syrbe,
in: Annegret Nippa (ed.), Kleines ABC des Nomadismus, Hamburg 2011, p. 82-83

MONDE ARABE-LE RETOUR DU LOCAL

by Fabrice Balanche

For An Art Against the Cartography of Everyday Life

by Ryan Griffis

For An Art Against the Cartography of Everyday Life

The research firm Strategy Analytics estimates that... more For An Art Against the Cartography of Everyday Life

The research firm Strategy Analytics estimates that over 18 million Global Position System (GPS) devices, including those built into cell phones, cars and handheld computers, were sold worldwide in 2005 (http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Business/162138/). They predict that number to grow to 88 million by 2010. Such devices, along with popular web services linking photographic representations of the earth with the mathematical grid of latitudes and longitudes, like Google Earth and Yahoo! maps, have helped enable a growing form of amateur cartography. As spatial annotation techniques - linking information to geospatial coordinates - develop parallel to the growing trend in amateur media production and distribution tools, naturalistic forms of representation find new value in their ability to be objectively located.

What role does the expansion of cartography into the "everyday" of the wired classes in the Global North mean? If the history of maps, delineating colonial conquests, bombing targets and redlined real estate, can be all too easily identified as one of Walter Benjamin's "documents of barbarism," what can we make of the present cartography of the everyday? What is being archived in the vast databases of the documented movements and minutiae of the GPS-enabled masses?

The artist and writer Alan Sekula, discussing the politics of photographic archives, once wrote that archives need to be read "from below, from a position of solidarity with those displaced, deformed, silenced, or made invisible by the machineries of profit and progress." This paper seeks to read the technologies and methods found in contemporary, popular cartography through the critical discourse surrounding archives and documentary modes of representation, as well as explore the work of artists and activists creating mapping "from below" to produce "counter-cartographies."

“Portées disparues. Comment écrire l’histoire des artistes chinoises en France au féminin?”

by Francesca Dal Lago

in Artistes Chinois à Paris. Paris: Editions Paris Musées, 2011.

On modern Chinese women artists On modern Chinese women artists

"Reiki Balances the Chakras": a Japanese Healing Practice in New Age India"

by Justin Stein

Lifestyle migration: escaping to the good life?

by Michaela Benson

(2009) (with O’Reilly, K.) ‘Lifestyle Migration: Escaping to the Good Life’ in Benson, M.C. and O’Reilly, K. (eds) Lifestyle Migration: Expectations, Aspirations and Experiences. Farnham: Ashgate.

Review of Imperial, by William T. Vollmann.

by Corey E. Andrews

Working-Class Notes (Spring 2010).

Tecnologie digitali, rappresentazioni del territorio e ricerca etnoantropologica: le fonti orali e la rappresentazione del territorio

by Fabio Malfatti

Malfatti, F. 2011, Tecnologie digitali, rappresentazioni del territorio e ricerca etnoantropologica. Le fonti orali e la rappresentazione del territorio, in: "Quaderni di Thule," n. X, vol. Atti del XXXII Convegno Internazionale di Americanistica.

Le attività di ricerca previste nel progetto Formazione istituzionale, ricerca e documentazione per lo sviluppo... more Le attività di ricerca previste nel progetto Formazione istituzionale, ricerca e documentazione per lo sviluppo agroforestale sostenibile delle comunità mapuche dell’area di Coñaripe, Cile ci hanno consentito di affinare una metodologia di integrazione tra dati registrati in formato digitale (video, audio, fotografia, dati GPS), l’uso di software per l’analisi qualitativa di dati audiovisivi (Transana) e SIT (GIS), per realizzare una cartografia del territorio che rispettasse il punto di vista delle comunità mapuche coinvolte nel progetto, ma anche quello dei vari attori coinvolti (istituzioni, organizzazioni non governative, ricercatori). Ne è scaturita un’interessante ipotesi metodologica in fase di sperimentazione che integra dati etnografici, etnobotanici, remote sensing e rappresentazioni cartografiche digitali.

The balance between urban development and natural forces at Leptis Magna (Libya)

by Enrico Cirelli

co-authored with S. Pucci, D. Pantosti, P.M. De Martini, A. Smedile, M. Munzi, M. Pentiricci, L. Musso

The relationships between human modification of the environment and natural events in the Roman city of
Leptis... more The relationships between human modification of the environment and natural events in the Roman city of
Leptis Magna (UNESCO world heritage), western Libya, are analyzed. For the first time, the history of Leptis
Magna is tested against a geomorphological and stratigraphical reconstruction and radiocarbon dating.
Historical and archaeological interpretations or analyses indicate the occurrence of different extreme
natural events as the cause of the town’s decline: earthquakes, flooding, and tsunami. Geological and
geomorphological surveys investigated the dynamics of the nearby Wadi Lebda, a major dryland stream
that forms the depositional and erosional systems of the settlement area. Alluvial phases were studied by
applying traditional stratigraphic analyses of outcrops and hand-cores. Additionally, the mapped flights of
inset terrace surfaces provided insights into the human modifications of the natural depositional/erosional
environment during historical times and the following alluvial phases affecting the Leptis Magna harbor.
The results integrate the archaeological knowledge by providing some independent chronological
constraints, and indicate that Leptis Magna history was tightly linked to the Wadi Lebda. Aware of the
hazards related to devastating flooding, the Romans were able to cope with the threat posed by the wadi
by performing engineering defensive hydraulic works around the town (dam and artificial channels).
Once the economic decay began and the society could no longer guarantee the ongoing maintenance of
these structures, the decline of the settlement started and the occurrence of destructive floods reclaimed
the populated areas. Conversely, the occurrence of a large earthquake (365 CE), or of a tsunami that
caused the disruption of the hydraulic systems and the infill of the harbor, has been discarded as primary
cause of the decline of Leptis Magna.

Migracion y Seguridad: nuevo desafío en México

by Natalia Armijo

A book edited by Natalia Armijo on migration and security issues in Mexico's Northen and Southern borders.

Hadrian's Wall: Embodied Archaeologies of the Linear Monument

by Claire Nesbitt

In Journal of Social Archaeology 9: 3 (2009)

The aim of this article is to consider the value of an embodied account of Hadrian’s Wall. This heritage site has... more The aim of this article is to consider the value of an embodied account of Hadrian’s Wall. This heritage site has often been understood in predominantly imperial and military terms. While this is a crucial aspect of the historical meanings of the monument, there has been little focus on factors such as changing social role, socialities produced through its presence, and perceptions of the Wall evident in historical accounts. Drawing on theoretical approaches in archaeology, geography
and anthropology, this article investigates the potential for
enriching archaeological knowledge through these pproaches. We focus on accounts of some early visitors to the Wall to consider movement on, and encounter with, the Wall through an embodied account. This account seeks to enrich our archaeological history by being attentive to the power of the material landscape on the senses of being and feeling of those that encounter it. The experience of the Wall is made intelligible through a body-centred account.