Wittgensteinian Anti-Scepticism and Epistemic Vertigo

status: publishe

Fact and fiction in housing research: utilizing the creative imagination

As much of our conceptual framework is informed by the experience of the imagination, there is much to be learnt from a study of various creative forms. Narrative fiction can be one such form, allowing us to gain a useful insight into complex features of social life. The purpose of this article is to investigate the treatment of housing issues in contemporary literature in order to gain insights into attitudes, experiences and interpretations from the perspective of a broad cultural milieu. Discussions of professionalism, housing tenure and homelessness have tended to be conducted within a narrow framework and adopted orthodox modes of evaluation. Consequently, the neglect of housing within a wider cultural context has reinforced the isolation of housing issues. The article argues that although discussions of housing and housing policy have been seriously limited within the contemporary novel, there are a number of key insights that can be gained from a discussion of issues within a fictional setting

Ethics and ‘fracking’: A review of (the limited) moral thought on shale gas development

Whilst claims about the ethicality of shale gas development via hydraulic fracturing (‘fracking’) are commonplace in everyday discourse, little scholarly attention has been afforded explicitly to this aspect of unconventional fossil fuel extraction. The limited research that speaks to ethical considerations largely describes ethical concerns associated with development – extremely few claims in research literature make an ethical case for development. The most common ethical concerns cited in research stem from issues of distributive justice, with procedural justice, the precautionary principle, exposure to involuntary risks, rights-based arguments, and changes in community character and way of life as next most common. Additional research hints implicitly at ethical dilemmas associated with shale gas development, but does not openly identify these issues as having moral implications. Many ethical considerations relate closely to concerns about water quality and the volume/supply of water available for other purposes. The limited scholarship in this area reveals the import of understanding the ways in which ethics permeate thoughts about shale gas development for designing policy that responds to constituent needs and concerns. Even more limited than research on ethical claims in association with shale gas development is well-reasoned scholarship that analyses the extent to which ethical claims about development are well justified and philosophically justifiable. A comprehensive and systematic analysis of the range of ethical claims potentially relevant to shale gas development and their usefulness for informing policy on this topic would contribute greatly to informed decision-making on this controversial issue – something that science alone cannot achieve

Framing the Real: Lefèbvre and NeoRealist Cinematic Space as Practice

In 1945 Roberto Rossellini's Neo-realist Rome, Open City set in motion an approach to cinema and its representation of real life – and by extension real spaces – that was to have international significance in film theory and practice. However, the re-use of the real spaces of the city, and elsewhere, as film sets in Neo-realist film offered (and offers) more than an influential aesthetic and set of cinematic theories. Through Neo-realism, it can be argued that we gain access to a cinematic relational and multidimensional space that is not made from built sets, but by filming the built environment. On the one hand, this space allows us to "notice" the contradictions around us in our cities and, by extension, the societies that have produced those cities, while on the other, allows us to see the spatial practices operative in the production and maintenance of those contradictions. In setting out a template for understanding the spatial practices of Neo-realism through the work of Henri Lefèbvre, this paper opens its films, and those produced today in its wake, to a spatio-political reading of contemporary relevance. We will suggest that the rupturing of divisions between real spaces and the spaces of film locations, as well the blurring of the difference between real life and performed actions for the camera that underlies much of the central importance of Neo-realism, echoes the arguments of Lefèbvre with regard the social production of space. In doing so, we will suggest that film potentially had, and still has, a vital role to play in a critique of contemporary capitalist spatial practices

Schuldig landschap. Over de toeristische aantrekkingskracht van Baantjer, Wallander en Inspector Morse

De opnamelokaties van tv-detectives genieten een toenemende populariteit onder toeristen. In dit artikel wordt, op basis van een tekstuele analyse van ‘Baantjer’, ‘Inspector Morse’ en ‘Wallander’, onderzocht welke inhoudelijke kenmerken van deze tv-detectives mogelijk als ‘trigger’ fungeren. Uit de analyse blijkt dat plaats en beweging een centrale rol vervullen binnen de narratieve structuur van dit genre. Door zelf de lokaties te bezoeken, kunnen toeristen het spoor nalopen van hun geliefde detective om aldaar, vanuit een veilige positie, tijdelijk op te gaan in het schemergebied tussen fictie en werkelijkheid

Twisting the arm: structural constraints in bicyclic expanded-ring N-heterocyclic carbenes

A series of diaryl, mono-aryl/alkyl and dialkyl mono- and bicyclic expanded-ring N-heterocyclic carbenes (ER-NHCs) have been prepared and their complexation to Au(I) investigated through the structural analysis of fifteen Au(NHC)X and/or [Au(NHC)2]X complexes. The substituted diaryl 7-NHCs are the most sterically encumbered with large buried volume (%VB) values of 40–50% with the less flexible six-membered analogues having %VB values at least 5% smaller. Although the bicyclic systems containing fused 6- and 7-membered rings (6,7-NHCs) are constrained with relatively acute NCN bond angles, they have the largest %VB values of the dialkyl derivatives reported here, a feature related to the fixed conformation of the heterocyclic rings and the compressional effect of a pre-set methyl substituent

Epidemiological Features of Infantile Hypertrophic Pyloric Stenosis in Taiwanese Children: A Nation-Wide Analysis of Cases during 1997–2007

OBJECTIVE: To describe the epidemiological characteristics of infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis (IHPS) in ethnic Chinese children. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We reviewed the National Health Insurance claims database and analyzed data from children less than one year of age who had been diagnosed with IHPS (ICD-9-CM 750.5) and had undergone pyloromyotomy (ICD-9-CM 43.3). We analyzed the incidence, gender, age at diagnosis, length of hospital stay, seasonal variation and cost of IHPS from data collected between January 1997 and December 2007. RESULTS: A total of 1,077 infants met inclusion criteria, including 889 boys and 188 girls. The annual incidence of IHPS ranged from 0.30 to 0.47 per 1,000 live births with a mean incidence of 0.39 per 1,000 live births. Between 2002 and 2007, the incidence showed a declining trend (P = 0.025) with coincidentally increasing trends for both exclusive breastfeeding (P = 0.014) and breastfeeding plus bottle feeding (P = 0.004). The male-to-female rate ratio was dynamic and increased from 3.03 during the first two weeks of life to 8.94 during the 8(th) through 10th weeks of life. The overall male-to-female rate ratio was 4.30. The mean age at diagnosis was 43.1 ± 2.4 days. After analyzing the months of birth and hospital admission, no seasonal variation associated with IHPS was detected. The mean length of hospital stay was 8.28 ± 7.10 days. CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of IHPS in Taiwan, a country with a majority ethnic Chinese population, was lower than observed incidences in Caucasian populations living in Western countries. Breastfeeding campaigns and low maternal smoking rates may contribute to the lower incidence of IHPS in Taiwan. However, additional studies with longer follow-up periods are needed

From the ‘hegemony of the eye’ to the ‘hierarchy of perception’: The reconfiguration of sound and image in Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven

Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven (1978) has been hailed as ‘one of the most beautiful films ever made’, but the film's immense cinematic beauty has detracted from the impact of its experimental soundtrack. Drawing on interview material with editor Billy Weber (who worked on all three of Malick's films), the original screenplay of Days of Heaven and detailed sequence analysis, the paper examines the film's manipulation of the traditional relationship between sound and image. Indicating that Malick's experimentation with sound largely developed in post production, Weber confirms that the dialogue-heavy screenplay was transformed in the cutting room with the addition of Linda Manz's haunting voice-over. Ridding the film of dialogue created a different emphasis on sound and Weber's states that he and Malick were disappointed that this aspect of the film was critically overlooked. This article redresses this lack of critical recognition, whilst arguing that it is reflective of the general under-theorisation of sound within a body film theory and criticism which tends to emphasise the visual image. With reference to Jean-Louis Comolli, Mary Ann Doane and Kaja Silverman, amongst others, I underpin my discussion of sound in Malick's film with a look at the wider context of the marginalised position of sound within film theory. © 2001 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC