The war of 1870 in the pattern of Franco‐German relations

The worlds of the living and the dead might seem irrevocably cut off from one another. Nevertheless, an important strand of modern thought attempts to find some form of intelligibility emanating from the dead. Paul de Man's discussion of prosopopoeia suggests the possibility of giving voice to the dead, though this turns out to be a form of delusion inherent in language. Emmanuel Levinas, arguing against Heidegger, seeks to maintain a relationship with the other beyond death, and Giorgio Agamben tries to find meaning in the silent testimony of victims of the Holocaust. This article examines these various attempts to mediate with the dead and suggests that it may be impossible to eliminate the risk of imposing our own words on those who cannot speak. However, a readiness to be surprised by unanticipated meanings may be the necessary condition to finding signifying sources outside ourselves.     

The war of the words: The rhetoric of ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom’ (an informal survey)

The political, military and media rhetoric of the March–April 2003 invasion of Iraq is interpreted as a phenomenon of power in relation to an understanding of culture as a site of denegation. Patterns of tautology, euphemism and equivocation are identified and their rhetorical appeal analysed in terms of the denegational structure of each of these figures. The essay is thus governed by an understanding of figuration as instrumental, not ornamental; it shows how rhetoric can be studied as a cultural phenomenon and argues by example that a pragmatics of troping is crucial to such a study.     

The law of one price,noise and “irrational exuberance”: the auction market for Picasso prints

We use prices realized for Picasso prints at auctions worldwide, as well as the 100 prints that comprise his Vollard Suite, to test the law of one price: the proposition that identical art objects sold contemporaneously should command the same price regardless of the auction house or geographic region where the sale takes place. Picasso is the most prolific printmaker of the twentieth century and, from 1977 to 2004, his prints appreciated in price significantly faster than the prints of modern masters as a whole. We find that Picasso prints sold in the United States command higher prices than in Europe. However, prices realized at Sotheby’s in New York are no longer higher than at Christie’s in New York, nor at Kornfeld than at other auction houses. We find evidence of “irrational exuberance” in the transitory nature of the extraordinary prices realized for the Picasso prints included in the 1997 sale of the collection of Victor and Sally Ganz at Christie’s in New York. More generally, we find substantial noise in auction outcomes, a result well known to savvy auction goers.

Collective memory and sacred space in post-genocide Rwanda: Reconciliation and rehumanization processes in Mureithi’s ICYIZERE

ABSTRACT

We assess Mureithi's 2009 documentary, ICYIZERE: hope (Motion Picture, Josiah Films), as a document of representational space and collective memory. We argue that the post-genocide reconciliation workshop represented in the film embodies and constructs a sacred/secular space. The reconciliatory space is produced through (1) negotiations of dialectical tensions between past/present as well as individual/collective memory, and (2) (re)presentations of rehumanization within the workshop whereby participants (and audiences) can (re)interpret the Other. We analyze the rehumanization process in the documentary via identity widening theory (Ellis, D.G., 2006, Transforming conflict: Communication and ethnopolitical conflict. Boulder, CO: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers) and empathetic human interaction. Finally, we detail how the documentary situates participants within a transformative space of negotiated memories of the genocide with current day reconciliation efforts.     

The rhetorical force of “global archival memory”: (Re)Situating archives along the global memoryscape

ABSTRACT

This essay engages the possibilities and pitfalls of UNESCO’s Memory of the World program for fostering “global archival memory.” Archives function as rhetorical weapons for both political control and social justice within national and regional contexts. The constitution of global archival memory shifts archives’ borders beyond nation-bound contexts, creating space for contention, deliberation, and debate within a presentist transnational arena. Approaching archives as symbols capable of marshaling cross-cultural identifications furthers memory scholars’ conceptions of transnational memories and communities. It responds to rhetorical scholars’ calls to further engage archives, while drawing on archival studies, memory studies, and rhetorical theories of memory.     

Evolution of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project: The Effects of the “Third” on the Interplay Between Cooperation and Competition

Minerva - The paper investigates the evolution of the first manned international space mission – a rendezvous and docking between a US and a Soviet spacecraft in 1975 known as the...     

“The Ennobling Unity of Science and Technology”: Materials Sciences and Engineering, the Department of Energy, and the Nanotechnology Enigma

The ambiguous material identity of nanotechnology is a minor mystery of the history of contemporary science. This paper argues that nanotechnology functioned primarily in discourses of social, not physical or biological science, the problematic knowledge at stake concerning the economic value of state-supported basic science. The politics of taxonomy in the United States Department of Energy’s Office of Basic Energy Sciences in the 1990s reveals how scientists invoked the term as one of several competing and equally valid candidates for reframing materials sciences in ways believed consonant with the political tenor of the time. The resulting loss of conceptual clarity in the sociology of science traces ultimately to the struggle to bridge the disjunction between the promissory economy of federal basic science and the industrial economy, manifested in attempts to reconcile the precepts of linearity and interdisciplinarity in changing socio-economic conditions over a half century.     

China’s “Gene War of the Century” and Its Aftermath: The Contest Goes On

Following the successful cloning of genes for mostly rare genetic diseases in the early 1990s, there was a nearly universal enthusiasm that similar approaches could be employed to hunt down genes predisposing people to complex diseases. Around 1996, several well-funded international gene-hunting teams, enticed by the low cost of collecting biological samples and China’s enormous population, and ushered in by some well-connected Chinese intermediaries, came to China to hunt down disease susceptibility genes. This alarmed and, in some cases, enraged many poorly funded Chinese scientists, who perceived them as formidable competitors. Some depicted foreign gene-hunters as greedy pilferers of the vast Chinese genetic gold mine, comparing it to the plundering of national treasures from China by invaders in the past, and called upon the government and their fellow countrymen to rise up and protect China’s genetic gold mine. Media uproar ensued, proclaiming the imminent “gene war of the century.” This article chronicles the key events surrounding this “war” and its aftermath, exposes some inherent complexities in identifying susceptibility genes for complex diseases, highlights some issues obscured or completely overlooked in the passionate and patriotic rhetoric, and debunks some misconceptions embedded in this conflict. In addition, it argues that during the entire course of this “war,” the public’s interest went conspicuously unmentioned. Finally, it articulates several lessons that can be learned from this conflict, and outlines challenges facing human genetics researchers.     

“The Hardest Task”—Peer Review and the Evaluation of Technological Activities

Minerva - Technology development and innovation are fundamentally different from scientific research. However, in many circumstances, they are evaluated jointly and by the same processes. In these...     

The Simon Mann Trial,the Demise of the “Dogs of War,” and the Discursive Legitimation of “Humanitarian” Private Security Companies in Africa

The essay provides a critical intercultural analysis of the 2008 trial of the “mercenary” Simon Mann, accused of instigating an attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea. The author argues that Equatorial Guinean President, Teodoro Obiang, tried to turn this trial into a tactical, neocolonial critique of mercenary activities that were allegedly supported by the United Kingdom, Spain, and other Western powers. Unfortunately, he was only partially successful. The growing influence of private security corporations and the suasory power of new military “rescue” tales meant that there were no shortage of defenders of these types of coups. This study demonstrates how certain actions can, at times, be simultaneously characterized as dominant strategies and subaltern tactics.     

The Philippine–American War and the American Debates about the Necessity and Legality of the “Water Cure,” 1901–1903

Abstract

This essay provides a critical genealogical study of the “water cure” controversies that took place during the Philippine–American War. The author extends the work of Foucault and Agamben to argue that a biopolitical review of this controversy illustrates how many of the legal and cultural arguments used to legitimate the water cure have resurfaced in contemporary debates about waterboarding and enhanced interrogations techniques. The essay also illustrates how anti-imperialists and other critics of Theodore Roosevelt's administration tried to use these water-cure debates as discursive vehicles for complaining about the systematic abuse of Filipinos during the Philippine “Insurrection.”     

Nuclear Power for Catalonia: The Role of the Official Chamber of Industry of Barcelona, 1953–1962

Between 1939 and 1959, the regime led by General Franco pursued a policy of economic self-sufficiency. This policy inflicted great injury on Spanish science and industry, not least in Catalonia, and in its capital, Barcelona. In response, Catalan industry looked to a future made more promising by the advent of nuclear power. This paper describes the innovative role of an industrial body, the Official Chamber of Industry of Barcelona, in catalyzing one the first programmes of teaching and research in nuclear engineering in Spain.