Seeking Nettle Textiles – Utilizing a Combination of Microscopic Methods for Fibre Identification

Bast fibres have been commonly used as a textile material in Northern Europe since Neolithic times. However, the process of identifying the different species has been problematic, and many important questions related to their cultural history are still unanswered. For example, a modified Herzog test and the presence of calcium oxalate crystals have both been used in identification. In order to generate more reliable results, further research and advancement in multi-methodological methods is required. This paper introduces a combination of methods which can be used to identify and distinguish flax (Linum usitatissimum), hemp (Cannabis sativa), and stinging nettle (Urtica dioica). The research material consisted of reference fibres and 25 fibre samples obtained from 12 textiles assumed to be made of nettle. The textiles were from the Finno-Ugric and Historical Collections of The National Museum of Finland. The fibre samples were studied by observing the surface characteristics and cross sections with transmitted light microscopy, and by using a modified Herzog test with polarized light, in order to identify the distinguishable features in their morphological structures. The study showed that five out of 25 samples were cotton, 16 nettle, one flax, and one hemp. Findings from two samples were inconsistent. The results show that it is possible to distinguish common north European bast fibres from each other by using a combination of microscopic methods. Furthermore, by utilizing these combined methods, new and more reliable information could be obtained from historical ethnographic textiles, which creates new vistas for the interpretation of their cultural history.     

Yer Doin’ it Wrong: How NOT to Interact with Vendors,Publishers, or Librarians

Three librarians who have extensive experience working in libraries or for publishers, vendors, or consortia presented an informal discussion on librarian–vendor relationships. The audience was encouraged to participate. Problems were articulated; speakers and audience members contributed suggestions for better approaches or behaviors when handling difficult situations.     

Library as a Partner in Co-Designing Learning Spaces: A Case Study at Tampere University of Technology,Finland

This article presents a case of co-designed temporary learning spaces at a Finnish academic library, together with the results of a user-survey. The experimental development of the multifunctional spaces offered an opportunity for the library to collaborate with its parent organisation thus broadening the role of the library. Hence, library can be seen as a third player facilitating learning spaces. Additionally, the library's own expertise was strengthened through successful cooperation with the undergraduate students and other actors. The results support prior research, where studying in the library is target-oriented differing from other learning spaces in providing support and resources.     

Urban jungle,Ferguson: Rhetorical homology and institutional critique

In this article, I use the rhetorical homology of the urban jungle to conduct an institutional critique of law enforcement in Ferguson, MO, after Michael Brown was killed. Rhetorical homologies and institutions intersect where language and practice coalesce, which is to say where group consciousness takes material forms. I investigate how, in news coverage of Ferguson, a common form was present across verbal devices and nonverbal practices at macro and micro levels that constituted black neighborhoods as subterranean spaces that needed colonization or containment, as frontier scenes with a savage character logic imposed upon its residents. The homology inscribes particular meanings into black and white skin colors with Anglophile cultural codes, which establishes a savage/explorer binary and keeps black people and spaces invisible, impoverished, and susceptible to racialized policing. The tools of institutional critique—postmodern mapping, boundary interrogation, and micro/macro alignment—inform the discourses and practices of those entrusted to keep daily realities well ordered and organized and to safeguard the social systems of everyday life. Scholars can use homology as a strategy to decode why institutional representatives include some and exclude others, and how they naturalize violence in the name of public service.     

“Into Eternity’s Certain Breadth”: Ambivalent Escapes in Markus Zusak’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">The Book Thief</Emphasis>

This article examines the consolatory possibilities presented by Markus Zusak’s recent crossover novel The Book Thief, investigating the degree to which the novel delivers the simultaneous consolation and confrontation identified with children’s and young adults’ Holocaust texts by such critics as Adrienne Kertzer and Lawrence Baron. Contending that the supernatural nature of the novel’s redemptive imagery ultimately undermines its apparently consolatory purpose, the article concludes with an analysis of the extent to which such a reading is complicated by the novel’s status as crossover text, and the triangular gaze that might subsequently be attributed to its adult readers.     

The Role of Democratic Governing Bodies in South African Schools

School governance reform in post-apartheid South Africa has been used instrumentally to democratise schooling and to calibrate governance functions to accommodate diverse school contexts. Through an analysis of relevant sections in legislation, the author shows how the reform was structured to allow for representative democracy and partnerships. But, drawing on two recent studies, she contends that the governance reforms failed to include measures that prevent a re-enactment of traditional South African power relations of race, class and gender at schools, and apartheid-era inequalities continue to manifest in schools. The author concludes that in general democratic school governing bodies have fallen short of the transformation vision.     

Disciplining Drunken Mothers: Media Representations of Women's Use of Alcohol

Building on recent feminist and media scholarship, this article examines the manifestation of The Mommy Wars and focuses on women's psychological health and its subsequent news worthiness. Unlike previous Mommy Wars, the war waged between mothers in this project is not focused on whether a woman works in the public sector, but rather, whether she drinks alcohol. An analysis of various news outlets demonstrates how news media extends TMW to the psychological and physical health of women. Specifically, drinking mothers are portrayed by news media as “fractured females,” suggesting that there is a crisis in the United States where children are put in danger by their drunken mothers. The analysis argues that this struggle to fix the definition of motherhood is a power struggle over gender performance. It is also a struggle that separates women from one another with consequences for feminism's future.     

On personal and collective dimensions of agency in doctoral training: medicine and natural science programs

The purpose of the present study was to investigate knowledge-creating agency by examining doctoral students' accounts of their pursuits, using structured interviews. We examined all of the talk apparently related to agency of 13 doctoral students taking part in collective doctoral training in two, highly regarded Finnish research communities (natural science and medicine). The doctoral process involved the participants pursuing article-based theses based on collectively shared research problems and journal articles co-authored with the supervisor and other senior researchers. Based on the qualitative analysis of the interviews, three categories of agentic talk were identified, respectively, for three proposed types of knowledge-creating agency: personal, distributed, and ‘object-related’. Personal agency involved participants' reflection on their academic competence, self-efficacy, and personal strengths and weaknesses. Distributed agency played an important role in assisting these participants overcoming challenges; this includes sharing of expertise, receiving social support, and having a sense of collective efficacy. Object-related agency, in turn, represented integration of a doctoral student's efforts with those of her immediate research community while pursuing shared research objects (e.g., co-authored articles). Apart from issues of agency which, the authors propose, are raised in the interviews, the data provide content-rich accounts of the collective nature of doctoral experiences.     

How service values influence the processing of word-of-mouth in the evaluation of credence beliefs

The purpose of this paper is to assess the effect of service values on the processing of word-of-mouth (WOM) information, and their impact on a complex belief in a high-involvement service context. Hypotheses are tested on survey data collected from 378 respondents facing a high-involvement service choice. The results suggest that two distinct information processing routes are active when consumers (here prospective students) evaluate complex beliefs. Furthermore, service values have distinct effects on the processing of WOM information. Self-oriented values foster more cognitive processing, whereas socially oriented values have the opposite effect. Considering the reasons as to why a service is needed (service values) should be a focus for marketers since they can be a powerful persuasion approach affecting the processing of WOM. This study contributes to earlier research on higher education marketing by incorporating service values into the pre-purchase phase of prospective students’ decision-making.