The digital Dark Ages : a retro-speculative history of possible futures

The Dark Ages are generally held to be a time of technological and intellectual stagnation in western development. But that is not necessarily the case. Indeed, from a certain perspective, nothing could be further from the truth. In this paper we draw historical comparisons, focusing especially on the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, between the technological and intellectual ruptures in Europe during the Dark Ages, and those of our current period. Our analysis is framed in part by Harold Innis’s2 notion of "knowledge monopolies". We give an overview of how these were affected by new media, new power struggles, and new intellectual debates that emerged in thirteenth and fourteenth century Europe. The historical salience of our focus may seem elusive. Our world has changed so much, and history seems to be an increasingly far-from-favoured method for understanding our own period and its future potentials. Yet our seemingly distant historical focus provides some surprising insights into the social dynamics that are at work today: the fracturing of established knowledge and power bases; the democratisation of certain "sacred" forms of communication and knowledge, and, conversely, the "sacrosanct" appropriation of certain vernacular forms; challenges and innovations in social and scientific method and thought; the emergence of social world-shattering media practices; struggles over control of vast networks of media and knowledge monopolies; and the enclosure of public discursive and social spaces for singular, manipulative purposes. The period between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries in Europe prefigured what we now call the Enlightenment, perhaps moreso than any other period before or after; it shaped what the Enlightenment was to become. We claim no knowledge of the future here. But in the "post-everything" society, where history is as much up for sale as it is for argument, we argue that our historical perspective provides a useful analogy for grasping the wider trends in the political economy of media, and for recognising clear and actual threats to the future of the public sphere in supposedly democratic societies.

The digital Dark Ages : a retro-speculative history of possible futures

The Dark Ages are generally held to be a time of technological and intellectual stagnation in western development. But that is not necessarily the case. Indeed, from a certain perspective, nothing could be further from the truth. In this paper we draw historical comparisons, focusing especially on the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, between the technological and intellectual ruptures in Europe during the Dark Ages, and those of our current period. Our analysis is framed in part by Harold Innis’s2 notion of "knowledge monopolies". We give an overview of how these were affected by new media, new power struggles, and new intellectual debates that emerged in thirteenth and fourteenth century Europe. The historical salience of our focus may seem elusive. Our world has changed so much, and history seems to be an increasingly far-from-favoured method for understanding our own period and its future potentials. Yet our seemingly distant historical focus provides some surprising insights into the social dynamics that are at work today: the fracturing of established knowledge and power bases; the democratisation of certain "sacred" forms of communication and knowledge, and, conversely, the "sacrosanct" appropriation of certain vernacular forms; challenges and innovations in social and scientific method and thought; the emergence of social world-shattering media practices; struggles over control of vast networks of media and knowledge monopolies; and the enclosure of public discursive and social spaces for singular, manipulative purposes. The period between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries in Europe prefigured what we now call the Enlightenment, perhaps moreso than any other period before or after; it shaped what the Enlightenment was to become. We claim no knowledge of the future here. But in the "post-everything" society, where history is as much up for sale as it is for argument, we argue that our historical perspective provides a useful analogy for grasping the wider trends in the political economy of media, and for recognising clear and actual threats to the future of the public sphere in supposedly democratic societies.

Malcolm Shepherd Knowles : A History of His Thought

This book traces the evolution of thinking of the American adult educator, Malcolm Knowles, and maps the development of his conceptual framework over the period 1950 to 1995. It constructs an overall narrative history of Knowles’ thought, and shows how andragogy provided him with both a label and a unifying theme for his practical-theoretical framework aimed at producing self-directed lifelong learners. Knowles died in 1997 and left a large legacy of books and journal articles. The book examines the writings that constitute Knowles' principal works. It identifies the major elements of his thought, shows the interrelationships between ideas and indicates the major phases through which his thinking passed. Importantly, the book establishes that Knowles’ theorising was traceable and that he possessed a clear and coherent conceptual framework.

Manchester : the original modern city

A critical account of Manchester's 'organising concept' - original Modern.

Review of Collaboration and Interdisciplinarity in the Republic of Letters : Essays in Honour of Richard G. Maber, edited by Paul Scott.

This volume brings together a number of essays that seek to explore the nature of early modern scholarship, ostensibly with special regard to the themes of interdisciplinarity and collaboration. As one might expect, the essays thus cover a gamut of topics – political manoeuvring, philosophical debates, gift-giving and dramatic performance – and each study is important and useful in its own right. As a whole, however, this collection serves more as a starting point for an exploration of its themes, than as an authoritative overview of the subject at hand.

Interaction of contractile activity and training history on mRNA abundance in skeletal muscle from trained athletes

Skeletal muscle displays enormous plasticity to respond to contractile activity with muscle from strength- (ST) and endurance-trained (ET) athletes representing diverse states of the adaptation continuum. Training adaptation can be viewed as the accumulation of specific proteins. Hence, the altered gene expression that allows for changes in protein concentration is of major importance for any training adaptation. Accordingly, the aim of the present study was to quantify acute subcellular responses in muscle to habitual and unfamiliar exercise. After 24-h diet/exercise control, 13 male subjects (7 ST and 6 ET) performed a random order of either resistance (8 × 5 maximal leg extensions) or endurance exercise (1 h of cycling at 70% peak O2 uptake). Muscle biopsies were taken from vastus lateralis at rest and 3 h after exercise. Gene expression was analyzed using real-time PCR with changes normalized relative to preexercise values. After cycling exercise, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ coactivator-1α (ET ∼8.5-fold, ST ∼10-fold, P < 0.001), pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase-4 (PDK-4; ET ∼26-fold, ST ∼39-fold), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF; ET ∼4.5-fold, ST ∼4-fold), and muscle atrophy F-box protein (MAFbx) (ET ∼2-fold, ST ∼0.4-fold) mRNA increased in both groups, whereas MyoD (∼3-fold), myogenin (∼0.9-fold), and myostatin (∼2-fold) mRNA increased in ET but not in ST (P < 0.05). After resistance exercise PDK-4 (∼7-fold, P < 0.01) and MyoD (∼0.7-fold) increased, whereas MAFbx (∼0.7-fold) and myostatin (∼0.6-fold) decreased in ET but not in ST. We conclude that prior training history can modify the acute gene responses in skeletal muscle to subsequent exercise.

History in the Australian Curriculum F-10 : providing answers without asking questions

This paper examines the most recent version of the Australian Curriculum: History F-10. It does so in two ways. First, it explores some of the strengths and weaknesses of this curriculum with reference to the decision to frame aspects of Australian history within the context of a world history approach. Whilst the positioning of Indigenous Histories is applauded, the curriculum’s lack of attention to the significance of the recent history of Australia’s Asian neighbours, and Australia’s relationship with them, is critiqued. This part of the paper also emphasises the need for comparative approaches and calls for greater emphasis on providing students with opportunities to critique and contest the construction of narratives about the past. Second, the paper introduces four invited articles that examine different aspects of the Australian Curriculum: History. Collectively these papers reiterate the significance of the richness of integrated and child-centred approaches and the importance of developing historical thinking, empathy and the historical imagination in the classroom.

Georg Calixtus, Isaac Casaubon, and the Consensus of Antiquity

This article explores the relationship between Georg Calixtus (1586-1656) and Isaac Casaubon (1559-1614). It does this in order to highlight an oversight in the existing literature concerning Calixtus, and to encourage scholars to revisit the work of Early Modern figures who have previously been considered only from modern disciplinary perspectives. By emphasizing the relationship between Calixtus and Casaubon, this article argues that Calixtus was potentially exposed to much broader circles of intellectual debate than has previously been considered, and that a reevaluation of his work in light of these debates is therefore in order.

Esprit Futur : Le Corbusier and José Oubrerie at Saint-Pierre De Firminy, Firminy-Vert, France, 1968–2006

What is the secret mesmerism that death possesses and under the operation of which a modern architect – strident, confident, resolute – becomes rueful, pessimistic, or melancholic?1 Five years before Le Corbusier’s death at sea in 1965, the architect reluctantly agreed to adopt the project for L’Église Saint-Pierre de Firminy in Firminy-Vert (1960–2006), following the death of its original architect, André Sive, from leukemia in 1958.2 Le Corbusier had already developed, in 1956, the plan for an enclave in the new “green” Firminy town, which included his youth and culture center and a stadium and swimming pool; the church and a “boîte à miracles” near the youth center were inserted into the plan in the ’60s. (Le Corbusier was also invited, in 1962, to produce another plan for three Unités d’Habitation outside Firminy-Vert.) The Saint-Pierre church should have been the zenith of the quartet (the largest urban concentration of works by Le Corbusier in Europe, and what the architect Henri Ciriani termed Le Corbusier’s “acropolis”3) but in the early course of the project, Le Corbusier would suffer the diocese’s serial objections to his vision for the church – not unlike the difficulties he experienced with Notre Dame du Haut at Ronchamp (1950–1954) and the resistance to his proposed monastery of Sainte-Marie de la Tourette (1957–1960). In 1964, the bishop of Saint-Étienne requested that Le Corbusier relocate the church to a new site, but Le Corbusier refused and the diocese subsequently withdrew from the project. (With neither the approval, funds, nor the participation of the bishop, by then the cardinal archbishop of Lyon, the first stone of the church was finally laid on the site in 1970.) Le Corbusier’s ambivalence toward the project, even prior to his quarrels with the bishop, reveals...

“More tick-the-box”: the challenge of promoting interdisciplinary learning in the middle years through the Australian history curriculum

The Australian Curriculum marks national reforms in social science education, first with the return to the disciplines of history and geography and second, through a new approach to interdisciplinary learning. This paper raises the question of whether the promise of interdisciplinary learning can be realised in the middle years of schooling if teachers have to teach history as a discipline rather than within an over-arching integrated curriculum framework. The paper explores the national blueprints and considers the national history curriculum in light of theories of teachers’ knowledge and middle school education. Evidence from teacher interviews indicates that historical understanding can be achieved through integrated frameworks to meet the goals of middle schooling.