Cosmopolitan Trade Centre or Bone of Contention? Alexandria and the Crusades, 487–857/1095–1453

Abstract

This article examines the position of Alexandria during the crusading period (487–857/1095–1453), seeking to open up the question indicated in the title for discussion. Did Alexandria's importance as a trade centre have an impact on whether or not it became the target of military attacks by the Franks? What other forms of contention was it a focus for during the period? While not claiming to provide conclusive answers, we seek at least to provide a starting point for discussion of this complex issue.     

Muslim Rulers Visiting the Imperial City: Building Alliances and Personal Networks between Constantinople and the Eastern Borderlands (Fourth/Tenth–Fifth/Eleventh Century)

This essay explores one of the main tools of Byzantine diplomatic techniques: inviting foreign rulers to Constantinople and establishing bonds of alliance through the bestowal of titles and stipends, with respect to the empire's Muslim neighbours in the fourth/tenth and fifth/eleventh centuries. In particular, it will be explained how and under what circumstances the traditional lines of communication between Constantinople and the caliphal court of Baghdad were gradually transformed into a multilayered network of personal contacts between the emperor and a number of Muslim frontier lords, who partly took on the role of representatives and dignitaries of the Byzantine Empire. Furthermore, I will try to examine the development of these newly established networks with respect to the emirates of Aleppo and Edessa, the Jarrā?id clan in Syria and the Marwānid dynasty in the Upper Euphrates and Lake Van region.     

In Solitary Pursuit: Singles,Sex War and the Search for Love, 1977–1983

This article suggests that by breaking away from the couples-centric lens normally deployed by historians of intimacy, and instead focusing on the experience of single people, historians gain fresh insight into a key transition point in the late twentieth century history of relationships. Singles, particularly those actively seeking partners, were particularly hard-pressed to digest the implications of a decade of sexual rights campaigns, because, more explicitly than couples, they had to articulate what they wanted out of the opposite sex. In paying close attention to the articulations and experiences of singles, we gain fresh purchase on how the sexual legacies of the 1970s began to be digested, resisted and repurposed. This article makes a case for doing so through Singles, a magazine that brought together the experiences of a cross-section of mostly heterosexual, unmarried Britons at a moment of significant sexual reordering. Examination of the Singles debates around dating and gender suggests that the contemporaneous efforts of ordinary people to process the new sexual languages of the 1970s were more intense and conflicted than the existing historiography has yet allowed, and that much of the sexual antagonism felt by men and women facing each other across the lonely hearts pages stemmed from gendered anxieties about economic standing.     

HOMEless: a case study of private/public inversion and the temporal–spatial exclusion faced by migrant domestic workers

Abstract

This paper is a case study of the shutdown of HOME (the House for Migrant Workers' Empowerment), a cultural and service center for migrant workers. HOME was founded by the Taipei City Labor Bureau (TCLB) and subcontracted to TIWA (the Taiwan International Workers' Association) in 2002, when the Director of the TCLB was the former labor activist Zheng Cun‐qi. For migrant domestic workers, the distinction between sold‐time and free‐time (i.e. the work–rest distinction) is blurred. Most of their supposedly private reproductive activities are temporally squeezed into holidays and spatially forced into public places where they are exposed to the scrutiny of the Taiwanese. This peculiar situation of private/public inversion not only results from, but also serves to reinforce, racial discrimination and class inferiority in their workplace (i.e. the homes of their employers). I use the concept of ‘bracketing’ to describe the spatial‐temporal strategies used by migrant domestic workers against this distorted inversion. I also analyze how employers ‘counter‐bracket’ migrant worker subjects as a counter strategy. HOME once existed as a ‘surrogate home’, providing shelter for migrant workers and allowing them to retain privacy during their days off. TIWA conducted organizing‐oriented cultural and political activities to assist the migrants in forming their own community, and challenged the spatial hegemony of real estate owners in the ChungShan District. However, when Yan Shang‐luan, a well‐known feminist labor research professor, took over the directorship of the TCLB in 2004 Taipei City Labor Bureau. 2004. “‘Minutes of the meeting for the analysis, review, and evaluation of administrative efficiency at the House for Migrant Workers' Empowerment’ ‘’”. 26 August [Google Scholar], she did not appreciate the function of HOME, and decided to close its doors. In analyzing the official rhetoric in the documents of the TCLB, I find that their decision to shut down HOME was a result of their middle‐class temporal‐spatial ‘habitus’. The shutdown became a counter‐bracket measure, which coincided with the real estate interests of the ChungShan local elites.     

Feeling freedom: Japanese and American wartime films on the liberation of the Philippines, 1943–1945

ABSTRACT

This article juxtaposes the Japanese wartime film Dawn of Freedom and Hollywood films on the Philippines during WWII as a method to analyze the representational strategies by which the U.S. and Japanese empires tried, respectively and in opposition to the other, to nurture the feeling that the peoples of the Philippines and beyond would enjoy freedom under their stewardships. Under pressure from the twin crises of colonialism and capitalism, the two empires sought to establish hegemony in the Asia-Pacific by fashioning a new model of empire that disavowed imperialist intentions and territorial aggrandizement while promising freedoms that included but went beyond national self-determination. The article focuses on four overlapping freedoms that run through the Japanese and Hollywood films: namely, political self-determination/consumerist freedom, freedom of self-sacrifice or the freedom to die, freedom in romance, and freedom from racism. Despite their differences, the author argues that the two sides in the imperial film wars shared much more than what is commonly realized and that the new strategy that advanced and yet disavowed imperialist ambitions while promoting the feeling of freedom, has great relevance for understanding the militarized world today.     

Accounting for quality: arts evaluation,public value and the case of “Culture counts”

Arts policy has a longstanding relationship with the concept of “quality” and the ways in which organisations measure, evaluate and account for it. Culture Counts, an evaluation system and digital platform, compiles data from standardised evaluation surveys of different stakeholder groups – organisations, audiences, critics, funders and peers – and provides the means to compare and triangulate data in an accessible format. As a result, it claims to provide a more effective, democratic tool for quality measurement of art, which demonstrates the public value of funding [Department of Culture and the Arts, & Knell, J. (2014). Public value measurement framework: Measuring the quality of the arts. Perth: Department of Culture and the Arts.]. Through qualitative research with two consortia of organisations involved in Culture Counts pilot projects in Manchester, England and Victoria, Australia, we explore these claims, comparing the reception and promotion of the system in both countries and considering its potential incorporation into policy assessment frameworks and adoption within arts organisations’ existing evaluation capacities.     

Just Like Hendrix: Whiteness and the Online Critical and Consumer Reception of Rock Music in the United States, 2003–2013

Based on a quantitative and qualitative analysis of 385 rock album reviews, this article investigates (i) to what extent ethno-racial boundaries are (re)produced and/or contested in the critical and consumer reception of rock music in the United States between 2003 and 2013 and (ii) to what extent (semi-)professional reviewers and consumer-reviewers differ from each other regarding ethno-racial classifications in their reception of rock music. Albums by nonwhite artists tend to receive lower evaluations than those by white artists, particularly when reviewed by consumer critics. Although both types of reviewers often ignore talking about race—echoing a color-blind ideology—(semi-)professional critics are more explicit and color-conscious regarding nonwhite participation in rock music. Furthermore, five different mechanisms are employed by reviewers as a part of ethno-racial boundary work: (i) ethno-racial comparisons, (ii) inter-genre comparisons, (iii) positive ethno-racial marking, (iv) negative ethno-racial marking, and (v) minimization.     

A Mirror of Oneself: Possessions and the Manifestation of Status among a Local Swedish Elite, 1650–1770

This article analyses manifestation of status among a local Swedish early modern elite, emphasizing the social and cultural context. Using detailed inventories from a dozen families, their material belongings are analysed according to spatial arrangements (public arenas available for displaying belongings), economic wealth and prosperity (economic status manifested by large quanties and/or elegant design and exclusive material) and cultural interests and refinement (referring to activities and habits in society as a whole, especially regarding cultural values and novel attitudes). By comparing different ways and manifesting status, the optimal strategy for success among the elite is discernible.     

A Question of Trousers: Seafarers,Masculinity and Empire in the Shaping of British Male Dress,c. 1600–1800

Trousers have a history. The British-imperial biography of this garment reveals the significance of ready-made clothing production for naval and merchant administrations with global reach. This history demonstrates the significance of male sartorial experiments in colonial settings. And it also confirms the rising importance of imperial and maritime cultures in shaping masculine ideals and habits of dress. Ultimately, middle ranked and elite male Britons came to rethink their allegiance to breeches and hose, a mnemonic of the ancien régime. Social cross-dressing ensued, with men of higher status adopting the garb of nautical working men, at a time when mariners were increasingly esteemed. The study of trousers opens new vantage points from which to assess the forces altering British masculinity, forces that also reshaped material norms.     

The presence of museums in the lives of Canadians, 1971–1998: What might have been and what has been

This chapter reviews data from seven large‐scale national surveys that measured cultural participation in Canada from 1971 to 1998. It assesses what the data imply regarding the numbers and types of people visiting museums, and how these have changed over time.

While overall participation rates have sustained the levels of the 1970s, participation rates in 1998 do not reflect the growth in participation projected then. Furthermore, the spectrum of people visiting museums has narrowed, rather than being ‘democratised’. Those with post‐secondary education have always been more likely to visit museums but now represent a majority of visitors for the first time.

That museums are now attracting relatively fewer people and fewer types of people suggests a diminishing presence for museums. Nonetheless, museums’ audiences are noticeably less elite than often portrayed, and there are opportunities for changes in policy and programmes designed to reach more people. Ultimately, though, the surveys give only limited insight into the role of museums in the lives of the general public, and new types of research and measurement are needed.