Defining national identity? Visiting the architectural spaces of the Museum of Scotland

National Cultures construct identities by producing meanings about the nation with which we can identify, meanings which are contained in the stories which are told about it, memories which connect its present within its past, and images which are constructed of it. A museum, the repository of a nation’s culture, which connects the past to the present through recounting stories about the artefacts of past cultures is clearly significant in representing the culture of a nation.

This paper explores the architectural spaces of the new Museum of Scotland, which opened in Edinburgh in November 1998. The museum has opened at a crucial time in Scottish history. The Scottish cultural renaissance is manifested in the increase in cultural production and call for Scottish cultural institutions. Parallel to this renaissance are political developments with the re-creation of a Scottish Parliament in 1999. When the idea of ‘Scotland’ is itself in a state of flux, the stories of the nation told in the museum, which attempt to give a sense of location, a connection between the individual and the nation are especially important.

Thus, issues of identity and ‘self’ are crucially important in understanding the contemporary museum. Within this, the relations between the production of these narratives and their consumption by the public are little understood. The majority of studies have concentrated, although not exclusively, on the production of museum displays, primarily with the "politics and poetics" of display. This paper analyses the relationship between producer and consumer within the Museum of Scotland, attempting to reconnect the forces of production and consumption. In doing so, it focuses primarily on the differing conceptions of the ability of the Museum to be able to narrate the nation.

Based on interviews both with museum staff and with visitors to the museum, it argues that an understanding of the relationship between the museum and Scottish national identity can only be considered through an understanding of the tension between the producers’ intentions and the way in which consumers conceptualise the museum as a space for "telling the nation".

'We learnt that last week' : reading into the language practices of teachers

The messages teachers convey to their students through their use of language can often go unconsidered, yet such practices can have a significant impact on students and their schooling, and in the creation of learning difficulties. In this paper we employ a discursive and ideological approach to analysing teachers’ language practices and suggest that such systematic examination is warranted given the centrality of ‘teacher talk’ to students’ schooling. We draw attention to these concerns through an analysis of a spoken text between a teacher and student in the context of ‘show and tell’; a dialogue drawn from a larger body of data of interviews with and observations of teachers in six Australian primary schools. The analysis attempts to uncover the meanings conveyed to the student in question, Sam, through his teacher’s language practices and to demonstrate the potentially detrimental effects of these practices on his schooling. Generally, we propose that teachers frequently employ linguistic techniques to refashion students in various ways, according to the norms of schooling; norms that often do not account very well for student difference and which position them as ‘difficult’. Specifically, we argue that Sam’s teacher seems more interested in moulding Sam’s behaviour to conform to the interests of the school than in valuing his heritage and contributions.

Academic mobility, intercultural encounters and cosmopolitan knowledge creation

In this presentation, I examine contemporary international encounters and intercultural interactions in academia as a researcher and recent participant in the ever-expanding global academic mobility programs. Academic mobility is a part of the modern continuing changes in the teaching and learning processes that higher educational institutions are undergoing globally. These changes are often termed ‘internationalization of education’ and they are expressed in the transformations in both the curricula and recruitment practices of students and staff. Global scale of academic mobility opens up prosperous opportunities for intercultural knowledge interchange, knowledge creation, and knowledge enrichment, all leading to the broadening of cultural imagination and creation of shared cosmopolitan cultural meanings.

Comparing experiences of academic mobility and migration

Academic mobility and accompanying migration have become increasingly evident as manifestations of globalization and internationalization of education worldwide. This paper aims to provide some insights into intercultural communication in academia by comparing experiences of students and academics who partake in academic mobility or/and academic migration. It seeks to reflect on how differences in cultural patterns impact on the integrational experiences and outcomes of academic learning and everyday interactions. Two contrasting cultural patterns of collectivism and individualism are explored, as they are displayed in intercultural interactions among migrants and hosting societies. To expose this contrast effectively, this paper focuses on the Russian-speaking mobile academics and compares their intercultural experiences in academia of two countries—Italy and Australia. In-depth interviews were conducted with twenty-two academic migrants or/and mobile academics on their experiences, views and perceptions of intercultural integration in two diverse settings. This paper explores diverse aspects of intercultural dialogue and compares perceptions of intercultural integration and feelings of wellbeing. It analyses evolving empirical manifestations of cosmopolitanism in everyday intercultural interactions and argues that postmodern cosmopolitan milieu facilitates intercultural integration and enables knowledge transfer and creation of shared cultural meanings.

Persian gardens: meanings, symbolism, and design

Culture and identity in a society can be represented in the architecture and the meanings intertwined with it. In this sense, the architecture and design are the interface for transferring meaning and identity to the nation and future generations. Persian gardens have been evolved through the history of Persian Empire in regard to the culture and beliefs of the society. This paper aims to investigate the patterns of design and architecture in Persian gardens and the meanings intertwined with their patterns and significant elements such as water and trees. Persian gardens are not only about geometries and shapes; but also manifest different design elements, each representing a specific symbol and its significance among the society. This paper seeks to explore Persian gardens in terms of their geometric structure, irrigation system, network construction and pavilions alongside design qualities such as hierarchy, symmetry, centrality, rhythm and harmony. In the second stage, the paper investigates the fundamental symbols and their philosophy in the creation of Persian gardens and in relation to the architecture and design.

Influences of spatial practices on pressure ulcer management in the context of spinal cord injury

Nursing practice is significantly influenced by the type and use of space in which nursing is practised. While investigating current patterns of service delivery for the management of pressure ulcers from the perspective of people with spinal cord injuries and their families, the space in which care was delivered was identified as a central determinant of care. Qualitative methods were used to investigate consumer perspectives among patients residing in both metropolitan and rural communities who had been hospitalized for the management of pressure ulcers. Issues related to the spatial practices of the hospital are discussed, demonstrating a link between well-being and the creation of an appropriate caring milieu. It is concluded that service could be improved markedly if health-care professionals placed more consideration on the impact of space on their service delivery.

De Chirico and Walker in light of Nietzsche and Guattari: the enigma of partial bodies in illogical spaces

If one concedes that the Freudian unconscious is inseparable from a society attached to its past, for example, its phallocentric traditions, Guattari’s alternative model dealing with "the production of subjectivity" offers a new perspective (1995: 11). From this vantage point, it is possible to map the way "every individual and social group" models the creation of subjectivity, a subjectivity "composed of cognitive references as well as mythical, ritual and symptomatological references" (1995: 11).

Molecular taxonomy and phylogenetics of some species of Australian palaemonid shrimps

The evolutionary history and classification of the palaemonid shrimps has been the subject of constant speculation and debate. At present, all major systematic treatments have been based on morphological characteristics. To help resolve the phylogenetic relationships, and thus enable the creation of a classification system that reflects evolutionary history, a region of the 16S mitochondrial rRNA gene was sequenced for a number of Australian Palaemonidae. The resulting phylogenetic analyses indicated the presence of major anomalies in the current classification of Australian Palaemonidae. Significantly, three species belonging to three separate genera, Macrobrachium intermedium, Palaemon serenus, and Palaemonetes australis, are closely related, with genetic differences more characteristic with that of congeneric species. The results also demonstrate non-monophyly in Australian palaemonids with respect to both Palaemonetes and Macrobrachium.

From local to national: aspects of mapping the welfare third sector in Australia

The paper charts the authors' research experiences in various types of sociological mapping ofc ommunity or third sector organisations. Specifically this was a search for a way of understanding how third sector organisations dealing with welfare issues were operating in Australia in the mid I990s.

The paper tells the story of how the researchers worked through the implications of being faced initially with a dearth of information about their subject and of how lessons were learnt about the disjunctions between what is formally given as textbook knowledge about research practice and what actually can and does happen: that is, the relationship between the theory and the practice of research.

In discussing the creation of a database of organisations, conducting focus groups and a national sample survey, the paper comments on some of the practical problems facing third sector researchers as well as looking at concept generation and typology building as analytical tools.

Moby-Dick and the philosopher of pessimism

Herman Melville discovered the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer late in life, and must have been surprised to discover how close this writer's philosophy was to his own beliefs. Despite this late revelation, the influence on Melville's work was strong, and there are good arguments to show that Melville was inspired by his ideas in the creation of 'Bartleby , the Scrivener' and Billy Budd. Melville may well have been aware of Schopenhauer's philosophy earlier, however, regardless of his lack of proven or direct exposure to the work of the German writer at the time of its composition, Moby-Dick exhibits many affinities with Schopenhauer's thought and it is possible to examine the book through such a reading.

The development of an efficient checkpointing facility exploiting operating systems services of the GENESIS cluster operating system

Recent research efforts of parallel processing on non-dedicated clusters have focused on high execution performance, parallelism management, transparent access to resources, and making clusters easy to use. However, as a collection of independent computers used by multiple users, clusters are susceptible to failure. This paper shows the development of a coordinated checkpointing facility for the GENESIS cluster operating system. This facility was developed by exploiting existing operating system services. High performance and low overheads are achieved by allowing the processes of a parallel application to continue executing during the creation of checkpoints, while maintaining low demands on cluster resources by using coordinated checkpointing.

Staff perceptions of the role of technology in experiential learning: a case study from an Australian university

This paper reports on a cross-disciplinary comparative study that examines the interplay between information and communications technologies (ICT) and experiential learning, in the context of seven fields of professional practice in undergraduate education. Our central claim is that academic teachers' framing of the meaning and nature of experiential learning shapes the actual and possible uses of ICT, in supporting the development of professional expertise in academic and workplace learning environments. Implicit in teaching conceptions and practices is an underlying view of the changing nature and conduct of the professions, and the requirements for effective entry level practice in relevant professional fields. The paper explores key indicators of ICT development and usage in supporting the creation of meaningful professional learning, and the design of integrated, coherent, professional learning environments.

A note on psychoanalysis and the crime of torture

Torture and the legitimate powers of the state - why are psychoanalysts involved - torture can be seen as an information gathering device - psychoanalysis may play a role in the creation of information gathering coercion techniques.

Collaborative knowledge creation in electronic mail

With organisational work increasingly performed by the collaboration of distributed groups, an improved understanding is needed of the co-creation of knowledge in emerging virtual structures. We explore the potential of the ubiquitous organisational tool, electronic mail (e-mail), for supporting collaborative knowledge creation in such settings. This research draws on a case study of knowledge creation occurring in e-mail conversations in a large Australian university and adopts a discourse analysis research approach. We describe a model of collaborative knowledge creation derived from the study and identify a preliminary set of key factors for organisational knowledge tools and their use by groups to support collaborative knowledge creation. The paper also provides insights into the role of e-mail in collaborative knowledge creation, not only in facilitating this process, but in shaping a participatory, multi-perspective, team-based approach to knowledge building. Organisational implications arising from this type of knowledge creation are also discussed in the paper.

Location, location, location: exploring the importance of place for arts organisations

Many arts managers and marketers are looking intently at the importance of high-speed communication and other technologies for the creation of virtual places. These places in cyberspace can only be accessed via a computer terminal and high-speed telecommunications tools. This paper asserts that there is still much for managers and marketers to learn about the importance of physical spaces for the arts. We use a model of place and apply it to three Australian arts organisations located in heritage buildings. One organisation failed, the other changed ownership, the third moved location. The findings demonstrate the importance of place and of strategy in determining place. We note the tension between the strategy, the venue, the objects, and the essential task and call for further analysis of place(s) for the arts.