Theory

The Impossibility and Necessity of Re‐Inquiry: Finding Middle Ground in Social Science

by Richard Wilk

The Impossibility and Necessity of Re‐Inquiry: Finding Middle Ground in Social Science
Richard R. Wilk
Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 28, No. 2 (September 2001), pp. 308-312

On the face of it, the idea of formal re-inquiry has clear roots in positivism, in the idea that social science is a... more On the face of it, the idea of formal re-inquiry has clear roots in positivism, in the idea that social science is a progressive enterprise of rejecting falsehood and building truth. Either qualitative or quantitative methodology can be part of the
positivist project. Taking a position of pluralism in the militant middle, I argue that both positivism and humanism have a great deal to offer consumer research and that re-inquiries have a central place within both philosophical positions.

When Good Theories Go Bad: Theory in Economic Anthropology and Consumer Research

by Richard Wilk

Published in 2002 as 2002  “When Good Theories Go Bad: Theory in Economic Anthropology and Consumer Research.” In Theory in Economic Anthropology, edited by Jean Ensminger, Altamira Press: Walnut Creek. Pp. 239-250.

How important is high-level theory in economic anthropology? This paper contrasts the approaches of practicing social... more How important is high-level theory in economic anthropology? This paper contrasts the approaches of practicing social scientists in consumer research and marketing (which could be defined as a sort of applied economic anthropology), with current economic anthropologists. I discuss the role of elite "high theorists" in both disciplines, and the contrasting ways that theory informs practice. In marketing and consumer research, much of what passes for theory is really just taxonomy, and low-level generalization. Yet the empirical work actively engages those propositions, and is sometimes used to invalidate them. In anthropological work on consumption, there is a great deal of quite high-level and abstract theory, but fieldwork and research rarely challenges or reflects upon these theoretical premises. The gulf between observations and the theories that drive and inform them sometimes threatens to swallow the whole enterprise.

Theorie en onderzoek voor dubbeltalenten: het HP van ArtEZ

by Peter Sonderen

Written with Iris van de Kamp

De toelatingseisen tot een kunstopleiding zijn hoog en alleen de beste studenten lukt het een plaats te veroveren.... more De toelatingseisen tot een kunstopleiding zijn hoog en alleen de beste studenten lukt het een plaats te veroveren. Waarom zou je in zo’n ‘ideale’ omgeving als student nog een Honours Programme (HP) willen volgen? In dit artikel lichten we toe wat de argumenten waren voor ArtEZ om in 2010 een HP op het gebied van theorie en onderzoek in de kunsten te starten, beschrijven we de vorm van het programma en schetsen de
ervaringen van de eerste twee lichtingen studenten.

Consideraciones acerca de la identidad en un contexto intercultural

by Diego Benegas Loyo

Visual collision? Prehistoric rock art and graffiti in an Armenian landscape.

by Fay Stevens

In. A. Stefanou and A. Simandiraki-Grimshaw (eds.) From Archaeology to Archaeologies. Oxford: BAR International Series. (forthcoming Spring 2012)

"Algunhas reflexions sobre a presenza da question 'intercultural' na literatura Comparada", in Boletin Galego de Literatura, A Literatura Comparada hoxe, II, coordinado por Anxo Albuin Gonzales e César Pablo Dominguez Prieto (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela), n.34, 2° semestre, 2005, pp.163-189.

by Franca Sinopoli

Praktik och teori - i praktiken

by Ingemar Gunnarsson

Co-authored with Anna Stark & Joacim Larsson, cop. 2009.

Describes a survey carried out among police trainees in a Swedish police college during 2003. The students render... more Describes a survey carried out among police trainees in a Swedish police college during 2003. The students render their opinion about the importance of theoretical versus practical knowledge in the police education. The paper also includes a short historical introduction and reflections concerning the development of the Swedish police.

El vuelo de Hermes: una crítica a la posmodernidad en arqueología desde los Andes

by Miguel Alejandro Aguilar Diaz

"Co-authored with henry Tantalean", "published in Maguare No. 22, 2008"

This paper approaches the impact that postmodernist philosophy has had on contemporary Latin American archeological... more This paper approaches the impact that postmodernist philosophy has had on contemporary Latin American archeological thought. We expose the question of the practice and commitment of social sciences, particularly archeology, in the quest for
objective scientific knowledge. We consider this a necessary epistemological question given the impact of postmodern tendencies associated with the end of time or history (Fukuyama, 1995) and with the denial of the existence of an objective reality, which by means of their metaphysics sidestep commitment
with knowledge and, consequently, with the socioeconomic and sociopolitical development of the human being. This way, we seek to provoke a reflection between postmodernity and reality in the political-academic context of archeology, particularly of the Andean one; and also to directly relate the past with the
present by means of techniques that record and analyze without severing the scientist’s ties to her/his broad social environment, an environment that entails in its praxis a commitment with the object of knowledge: societies.

As geociências e suas implicações em teoria e métodos arqueológicos

by Astolfo Araujo

Revista do Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia, Suplemento 3: 35-45, 1999

Beginnings: Edward W. Said and questions of nationalism

by Gurminder K Bhambra

Edward W. Said has advocated the crossing of boundaries whilst at the same time abjuring the existence of those very... more Edward W. Said has advocated the crossing of boundaries whilst at the same time abjuring the existence of those very boundaries. In practice, this has been played out in his opposition to nationalism existing alongside his support for the Palestinian people – a relationship that many have regarded as paradoxical if not contradictory. His regard for nationalist movements as having progressive and liberatory potential stands alongside his recognition of the uncomfortable relationship between nationalism and liberation. The tension arises, for him, as a consequence of the processes of differentiation that are associated with the emergence, and existence, of nations sitting uneasily with the narratives of emancipation which, in their strongest form, he argues, are ‘narratives of integration not separation’ (1993: xxx). In his commitment to truth and justice, Said recognised the positing of boundaries and barriers as giving rise ‘to polarisations that absolve and forgive ignorance and demagogy more than they enable knowledge’ (1993: 35). In particular, he was opposed to the idea that ‘only women can understand feminine experience, only Jews can understand Jewish suffering, only formerly colonial subjects can understand colonial experience’ (Said 1993: 35). Identity, for him, be that national, cultural, or other, was best understood as a starting point for a more interesting journey; and not all that human life was about. This issue of Interventions explores possible journeys in more depth through three articles which take up very different themes in addressing them. A central concern that resonates through all the articles, however, is Said’s commitment to truth, justice, equality, and the possibility of a better world – always provisional, always open to further negotiation and reconstruction.

History through a Translation Perspective

by Christopher Rundle

Published in Chalvin, Antoine, Anne Lange & Daniele Monticelli (eds) "Between Cultures and Texts. Itineraries in Translation History/Entre les cultures et les textes. Itinéraires en histoire de la traduction". Frankfurt Am Main, Peter Lang, 2011: 33-43.

Quote from article:

"When we carry out research on translation history, we face a choice. Are we going... more Quote from article:

"When we carry out research on translation history, we face a choice. Are we going to attempt to extrapolate the translation features we uncover in the historical context we are examining in order to contribute to a wider, general or more global history of translation – thereby also making our work more accessible to Translation Studies (TS) in general – or are we going to address those scholars who share our historical subject and introduce them to the insights which the study of translation can offer? In short, is translation the object of our research, or is it the lens through which we research our historical object?  In this paper I will discuss this choice and, drawing on my own area of research in translation history, I will argue that seeking to introduce the insights that the study of translation can bring to a wider community of cultural historians, who do not usually take translation into consideration, should be at least one of the objectives of historians of translation."

A Review Essay on Lisa Nakamura's Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity and Identity on the Internet

by Kali Tal

Available on the internet since 2001.

An in-depth review essay exploring the lacunae in Nakamura's book in particular, and in contemporary cyberculture... more An in-depth review essay exploring the lacunae in Nakamura's book in particular, and in contemporary cyberculture studies in general. The first section of the review focuses on the strengths of Nakamura’s work, the second on its weaknesses, and the third upon problems in the wider fields of cyberculture studies and postmodernism.

‘It’s a Beastly Rough Crowd I Run With’: Theory and the ‘New University

by Kali Tal

Published in Day Late, Dollar Short: The Next Generation and the New Academy, ed. Peter C. Herman (New York: State University of New York Press) 2000.

A meditation on the intersection between literary theory, cultural studies, and the corporatization of the university,... more A meditation on the intersection between literary theory, cultural studies, and the corporatization of the university, with specific details on the author's experience at the Arizona International College, a now-defunct non-tenure college of The University of Arizona.

The Poetics of Salt: Theorizing Method and Madness

by Prakash Kona

Baracknophobia and the Paranoid Style: Visions of Obama as the Antichrist on the World Wide Web

by Amarnath Amarasingam

In Robert Glenn Howard, ed. Network Apocalypse: Visions of the End in an Age of Internet Media (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2011): 96-123.

This chapter explores the belief among certain subsets of the US population that Obama is the Antichrist depicted as... more This chapter explores the belief among certain subsets of the US population that Obama is the Antichrist depicted as setting the stage for the end of the world. First, I examine the apocalyptic fears and conspiracies surrounding the presidency of Barack Obama, placing it in historical and religious perspective. Second, I investigate how expressions of apocalypticism and conspiracism surrounding Obama manifest themselves on the Internet.

Anthropological theory of exchange

by Justyna Baron

Conversation Analysis & Ethnomethodology: The Centrality Of Interaction

by Timothy Halkowski

Co-authored with Virginia Teas Gill.

Halkowski, T. and V.T. Gill.  (2010), "Conversation Analysis & Ethnomethodology: The Centrality Of... more Halkowski, T. and V.T. Gill.  (2010), "Conversation Analysis & Ethnomethodology: The Centrality Of Interaction" Handbook of Qualitative Health Research.London: Sage.

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"The conversation analytic perspective focuses on the moment-by-moment production of human social life. With its roots in ethnomethodology, conversation analysis (CA) affords a unique and powerful view of the ways in which people’s vocal and nonvocal actions interlock in a temporal weave to generate organized patterns of interaction (Garfinkel, 1967; Sacks, 1992; Heritage, 1984; Maynard and Clayman, 1991). It allows us to see the deep and fine-grained organization of health care interactions, an organization that becomes part of the experiences of patients and health care providers.

This unique view is a function of the questions conversation analysts ask about health care interactions (as well as CA’s theoretical assumptions). In this chapter,
we discuss these distinctive questions and focus on two core aspects of the CA perspective: its emphasis on the social and the temporal nature of human interaction. We also discuss examples of CA research on health care interactions, giving special attention to the ways that ‘practical epistemics’ shape the opportunities for patients and health care providers to demonstrate their knowledge and experience to each other (Whalen and Zimmerman, 1990). Our aim is to show when and how CA can be useful to researchers who are interested in interaction in medical settings with a particular focus on doctor – patient consultations."
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Translating and Extending Two Gestalt Grouping Principles to Include Time to Characterize Visual Motion on Screen

by Jinsook Kim

International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction 2005 (USA)

A Conceptual Framework to Investigate Perceptual Dominance Regarding Motion Closure for Screen Design

by Jinsook Kim

International Association of Societies of Design Research Conference 2007 (Hong Kong)

Translating and Extending Gestalt Grouping Principles to Include Time to Establish a Research Framework in Which to Study Motion.

by Jinsook Kim

Design Research Society International Conference 2004 (Australia)