April 2006 - Air-L - lists.aoir.org

Special Issue: Psychological Anthropology of War
by Orion Anderson 25 Apr '06

25 Apr '06

******************************************************** NOW AVAILABLE: Special Issue of the PEACE REVIEW on the PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION OF WAR ******************************************************** The Special Issue of the PEACE REVIEW (published by Taylor and Francis) is now available. Based on over 150 proposals received, eleven articles were accepted for publication. These essays represent the cutting edge of contemporary thought on the psychology of warfare. A LIMITED NUMBER OF COPIES OF THIS SPECIAL ISSUE NOW ARE AVAILABLE -------------------------------------------------------- For information on how to obtain a copy of the Special Issue on the PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION OF WAR, please CLICK HERE: https://www.ideologiesofwar.com/register/ -------------------------------------------------------- Articles included in this special issue are listed below. We also have provided below brief excerpts that convey the excitement of this special issue. ******************************************************** ARTICLES INCLUDE: SACRIFICE, TRANSCENDENCE AND THE SOLDIER, Babak Rahimi, Assistant Professor of Iranian and Islamic Studies at the University of California at San Diego. GROUP PSYCHOLOGY, SACRIFICE AND WAR, Norman Steinhart, M.D., Research Fellow at the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto, Canada WAR AND THE RELIGIOUS WILL TO SACRIFICE, Patrick Porter, Tutor in Modern History at the University of Oxford MEMORIALIZATION AND THE SELLING OF WAR, Deborah D. Buffton, Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse THE MYTHOLOGY OF WAR, Dr. Andrew Robinson, Political theorist, University of Nottingham THE MANIC ECSTASY OF WAR, Wendy C. Hamblet, Professor of Philosophy, Adelphi University, New York HUMILIATION AND THE GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR, Paul Saurette, Assistant Professor School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa, Canada DOMINANCE AND SUBMISSION IN POSTMODERN WAR IMAGERY, Myra Mendible, Associate Professor of American Studies at Florida Gulf Coast University GUILT AND SACRIFICE IN U.S. WARFARE, Carl Mirra, American Studies at SUNY College, Old Westbury MALE GENDER INSTABILITY AND WAR, Jeannette Marie Mageo, Professor of Anthropology, Washington State University COMBAT MOTIVATION, Johan M.G. van der Dennen, senior researcher on war and peace at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands --------------------------------------------------------- For information on how to obtain a copy of the Special Issue on the PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION OF WAR, please CLICK HERE: https://www.ideologiesofwar.com/register/ --------------------------------------------------------- For further information please contact Orion Anderson at (718) 393-1104 or send an email to oanderson(a)ideologiesofwar.com ******************************************************** EXCERPTS FROM THE ARTICLES: Buffton: War is so closely connected with the identity of nations that participation in war is a necessary action to show one's devotion to the country; a society cannot consider itself "alive" if its citizens are not willing to die for it. Fighting and dying for one's country become the means through which a society is "resurrected." We see this message of war resurrecting society in war memorials. One of the most influential sculptors of war memorials in post World War I France created monuments in which we see a peasant woman at the grave of a soldier marked by a cross and a helmet, but sprouting from the grave come abundant sheaves of wheat. The message is that the blood of the dead soldiers brings forth new life to reinvigorate the country. Saurette: Once we understand 9/11 as fundamentally humiliating - and not just threatening - the United States, we can make better sense of the elements of the global war on terror. A legal approach would never have been accepted by the administration, even if international laws were reliable and effective enough to pursue al-Qaeda. Why? Although courts promise to provide justice, they rarely explicitly deliver vengeance and counter-humiliation. Criminal prosecution may provide restitution, but it could not deliver the larger goal of counter-humiliating al-Qaeda and thus publicly re-establishing global respect for America. --------------------------------------------------------- For information on how to obtain a copy of the Special Issue on the PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION OF WAR, please CLICK HERE: https://www.ideologiesofwar.com/register/ --------------------------------------------------------- Mendible: Humiliation is one of the techniques through which institutions and nations construct docile and disciplined bodies. Military institutions inscribe the value of discipline and control on the soldier's body and psyche. Phillip Caputo describes the demeaning aspects of his US marine training. The rigorous and often painful physical trials, the drill sergeant hollering insults, separated those worthy of the warrior's honor from the "unsats"-the ones that carried "the virus of weakness." In forging a marine corps-a military body defined by strength and hardness, the soldier extirpates any trace of the feminine. Discipline begins with self-abnegation; absolute surrender to the authority of the stern father figure who punishes and rewards. Rahimi: The soldier's experience in believing that he is dying for something greater than himself, for something that will outlast his individual, perishable life in place of a greater, eternal vitality (embodied in the national or a religious identity) is crucial for the ideological justification of war. --------------------------------------------------------- For information on how to obtain a copy of the Special Issue on the PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION OF WAR, please CLICK HERE: https://www.ideologiesofwar.com/register/ --------------------------------------------------------- Steinhart: Willingness to offer up one's life to one's nation is perhaps even more essential in war than fear and hatred of the enemy. It is because everyone must contribute to the larger good that 'enemies' must be destroyed or at least subdued, for many of these 'enemies' do not appear to citizens as a threats in their daily lives or cause them harm directly. Robinson: The people who engage in and support wars, or any other kind of social action, are motivated by a conception of the world, i.e. a set of conscious or unconscious beliefs and assumptions which make their course of action seem justified, necessary or desirable. Wars commence in the culture first of all and we kill each other in euphemisms and abstractions long before the first missiles have been launched'. Hamblet: Wars confirm the values, virtues and meanings of one's own cultural group. Sacred symbols-flags, national anthems, tales of past heroes, fallen ancestors-are put to work in luring the best of the nation-its strong and courageous youths-to the extreme patriotism required to maintain order. Mirra: In war, the good and bad selves are divided or split; the good is retained for the self and the bad is exported or projected on to others. Since the other subsumes these violent traits, it is seen as demonic and worthy of annihilation. Individuals or nation-states that cause others to suffer must somehow release themselves from the torment of guilt. The easiest way to circumvent guilt is to cast one's enemies as inhumane, wholly deserving of violent treatment. van der Dennen: Despite the social legitimization of violence provided by military institutions, the repugnance and revulsion many soldiers feel toward killing is a recurring feature of the military literature. Marshall, as we have seen, claimed that army psychiatrists studying combat fatigue in the European theater had found that fear of killing, rather than fear of being killed, was the most common cause of battle failure in the individual. --------------------------------------------------------- For information on how to obtain a copy of the Special Issue on the PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION OF WAR, please CLICK HERE: https://www.ideologiesofwar.com/register/ ---------------------------------------------------------

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Online graffiti
by Deanya Lattimore 25 Apr '06

25 Apr '06

I don't think I've missed anyone saying this, but apologies if I have. Recent posts have made me think of sites like WalmartSucks.com as online graffiti -- "graffiti" being generally thought of as something that the owner of the building would have removed if possible. But websites that use the brand names of others to complain about them have an added nuance of derogation, so I'm not sure how productive my thinking is here. :-D. On Sunday, April 23, 2006, at 03:02 PM, air-l-request(a)listserv.aoir.org wrote: > > Date: Sun, 23 Apr 2006 09:56:03 +1000 > From: Jean Burgess <je.burgess(a)qut.edu.au> > Subject: Re: [Air-l] Online graffiti > I think the case for the abuse of wikipedia working like graffiti > only works if the metaphor is refined a bit - it's more like someone > coming along to a community street mural and deliberately painting > something out of step with the aesthetic and political values that > have been implicitly or explicitly agreed on by the 'community' that > is working on the mural. > A bit different from walking up to the blank rendered wall of, say, > a McDonald's and writing "ronald sucks" on it. In one case (the > mural), the wall is constructed as open and 'writable' and in the > second case (mcdonald's) it isn't, because of very clear binary > distinctions between who owns the wall and therefore gets to paint > it, and who doesn't. > All of which makes wikipedia a far more interesting case, IMHO. > cheers > Jean > > Jean Burgess > http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/~burgess > Reviews editor, International Journal of Cultural Studies

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Internet ethics
by Gail Taylor 24 Apr '06

24 Apr '06

Hi everyone, I'm starting to track the manner in which employees are being disciplined by their employers for using Internet- based technologies during their on- and off-duty work hours. I came across a news story this morning that might be of interest to others of you who might be doing the same. An administrative judge in the U.S. has ruled that "surfing the web is equivalent to reading a newspaper or talking on the phone" in workplace settings. The employee in question works for a government agency. Do you think this ruling is one that private sector employers will see as a signal to rethink and restructure current definitions of employee appropriate use of Internet-based technologies? -- Gail Gail Taylor, M.Ed. Human Resource Education Ph.D. Student University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign ***************************************************** Judge: Web-Surfing Worker Can't Be Fired Saying surfing the web is equivalent to reading a newspaper or talking on the phone, an administrative law judge has suggested that only a reprimand is appropriate as punishment for a city worker accused of failing to heed warnings to stay off the Internet. Administrative Law Judge John Spooner reached his decision in the case of Toquir Choudhri, a 14-year veteran of the Department of Education who had been accused of ignoring supervisors who told him to stop browsing the Internet at work. The ruling came after Mayor Michael Bloomberg fired a worker in the city's legislative office in Albany earlier this year after he saw the man playing a game of solitaire on his computer. In his decision, Spooner wrote: "It should be observed that the Internet has become the modern equivalent of a telephone or a daily newspaper, providing a combination of communication and information that most employees use as frequently in their personal lives as for their work." He added: "For this reason, city agencies permit workers to use a telephone for personal calls, so long as this does not interfere with their overall work performance. Many agencies apply the same standard to the use of the Internet for personal purposes." Spooner dispensed the lightest possible punishment on Choudhri, a reprimand, after a search of Choudhri's computer files revealed he had visited several news and travel sites. Martin Druyan, Choudhri's lawyer, called the ruling "very reasonable."

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what can/'t you say on a blog
by Barry Wellman 24 Apr '06

24 Apr '06

Shani Orgad asks what can/can't you say on a personal blog. I can give you two sides to this, both true even if contradictory. 1. If it is at all maintained by the university, the university can have a right to say No. (Warning: I don't know UK law.) Even if you're using a university computer, they have a right. 2. OTOH, in my 40 years of experience, many university administrators don't know the law -- or even their university ethics codes -- and just assert stuff. So you can always ask them to show you where the law and code forbids stuff. It's always better to have a trusted representative working for you on such matters, especially if they are a knowledgeable greivance officer of your faculty union or an experienced lawyer in the area -- libel, labour, etc. Having given my 2 shillings worth of advice, I must cut and run off to a conference until May 1. And it is too painful for me even now to discuss any more the details of my own experience. Good luck, Barry _____________________________________________________________________ Barry Wellman Professor of Sociology NetLab Director wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 You're invited to visit -- and contribute to -- my new fun website "Updating Cybertimes: It's Time to Bring Our Culture into Cyberspace" http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php _____________________________________________________________________

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Webology: Volume 3, Number 1, 2006
by Alireza Noruzi 24 Apr '06

24 Apr '06

Dear All, apologies for cross-posting. We are pleased to inform you that Vol. 3, No. 1 of Webology, an OPEN ACCESS journal, is published and is available ONLINE now. This issue contains: ------------------ Editorial: Link Spam and Search Engines -- Alireza Noruzi -- http://www.webology.ir/2006/v3n1/editorial7.html ----------------------------------------- Stemming and root-based approaches to the retrieval of Arabic documents on the Web -- Haidar Moukdad -- http://www.webology.ir/2006/v3n1/a22.html ----------------------------------------- E-marketing, Unsolicited Commercial E-mail, and Legal Solutions -- Li Xingan -- http://www.webology.ir/2006/v3n1/a23.html ----------------------------------------- Environmental Knowledge and Marginalized Communities: The Last Mile Connectivity -- A. Neelameghan and Greg Chester -- http://www.webology.ir/2006/v3n1/a24.html ----------------------------------------- Book Review of 'Digital Libraries: Principles and Practice in a Global Environment'/ Lucy A. Tedd & Andrew Large -- Hamid R. Jamali http://www.webology.ir/2006/v3n1/bookreview3.html ========================================= Call for Papers: http://www.webology.ir/callforpapers.html ========================================= Regards, A. Noruzi --------------------------------- Love cheap thrills? Enjoy PC-to-Phone calls to 30+ countries for just 2¢/min with Yahoo! Messenger with Voice.

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Re: [Air-l] folksonomies
by M.B.Gaved 23 Apr '06

23 Apr '06

Hi Alla there's a wikipedia article on "Folksonomy" with some links to papers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folksonomy regards Mark Mark Gaved Knowledge Media Institute The Open University http://kmi.open.ac.uk/people/mark -----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces(a)listserv.aoir.org on behalf of Alla Genkina Sent: Sun 4/23/2006 5:49 PM To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org Subject: [Air-l] folksonomies Hello, I am just beginning my PhD research and am interested in folksonomies/tagging/social bookmarking. Can anyone point me to research in this area? I have not been able to find too many references aside from general discussion on blogs. On the same token, I would also be interested in references that talk about the social construction of knowledge online. Thank you so much in advance for you help. Sincerely, Alla _______________________________________________ The air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/

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folksonomies
by Alla Genkina 23 Apr '06

23 Apr '06

Hello, I am just beginning my PhD research and am interested in folksonomies/tagging/social bookmarking. Can anyone point me to research in this area? I have not been able to find too many references aside from general discussion on blogs. On the same token, I would also be interested in references that talk about the social construction of knowledge online. Thank you so much in advance for you help. Sincerely, Alla

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Technology and Literacy text
by Mark Warschauer 22 Apr '06

22 Apr '06

Can anybody recommend a text on Technology and Literacy to be used for an undergraduate course on the topic to be taught in spring 2007? Thanks-- Mark -- Mark Warschauer Associate Professor, Dept. of Education and Dept. of Informatics University of California, Irvine tel: (949) 824-2526, fax: (949) 824-2965 markw(a)uci.edu; http://www.gse.uci.edu/faculty/markw

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cyberwars
by Barry Wellman 22 Apr '06

22 Apr '06

A kindred, never-ending computing war is bwetween the centralizers (big IBM iron in the old days; sealed PCs on server networks now) vs decentralizers (DOS, Windows before .Net). Rob Kling wrote eloquently about this in the 1970s. I'm on hoiday now and don't have his papers accessible, but the Sociological Rob article that I and Roxanne Hiltz wrote a while back for a joournal contains a summary and references. It's also on my website. Barry _____________________________________________________________________ Barry Wellman Professor of Sociology NetLab Director wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 You're invited to visit -- and contribute to -- my new fun website "Updating Cybertimes: It's Time to Bring Our Culture into Cyberspace" http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php _____________________________________________________________________

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Re: [Air-l] Libertarianism and Programmers / Techies
by Todd Davies 22 Apr '06

22 Apr '06

A good book on exactly this topic is Cyberselfish by Paulina Borsook (http://www.cyberselfish.com/) Todd Davies *** email: davies(a)csli.stanford.edu Symbolic Systems Program *** phone: 1-650-723-4091 Stanford University *** fax: 1-650-723-5666 Stanford, CA, USA 94305-2150 *** web: www.stanford.edu/~davies

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