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.

Heidegger's hippies : a dissenting voice on "the problem of the subject"

This is a deliberately contentious paper about the future of the socio-political sphere in the West based on what we know about its past. I argue that the predominant public discourse in Western countries is best characterised as one of selective forgetfulness; a semi-blissful, amnesiacal state of collective dementia that manifests itself in symbolic idealism: informationalism. Informationalism is merely the latest form of idealism. It is a lot like religion insofar as it causally relates abstract concepts with reality and, consequently, becomes confused between the two. Historically, this has proven to be a dangerous state of affairs, especially when elites becomes confused between ideas about how a society should work, and the way it actually does work. Central to the idealism of the information age, at least in intellectual spheres, is the so called "problem of the subject". I argue that the "problem of the subject" is a largely synthetic, destabilising, and ultimately fruitless theoretical abstraction which turns on a synthetically derived, generalised intradiscursive space; existentialist nihilism; and the theoretical baubles of ontological metaphysics. These philosophical aberrations are, in turn, historically concomitant with especially destructive political and social configurations. This paper sketches a theoretical framework for identity formation which rejects the problem of the subject, and proposes potential resources, sources, and strategies with which to engage the idealism that underpins this obfuscating problematic in an age of turbulent social uncertainty. Quite simply, I turn to history as the source of human identity. While informationalism, like religion, is mostly focused on utopian futures, I assert that history, not the future, holds the solutions for substantive problematics concerning individual and social identities. I argue here that history, language, thought, and identity are indissolubly entangled and so should be understood as such: they are the fundamental parts of 'identities in action'. From this perspective, the ‘problem of the subject’ becomes less a substantive intellectual problematic and more a theoretical red herring.

Investigating child participation in the everyday talk of teacher and children in a preparatory year

In early years research, policy and education, a democratic perspective that positions children as participants and citizens is increasingly emphasized. These ideas take seriously listening to children’s opinions and respecting children’s influence over their everyday affairs. While much political and social investment has been paid to the inclusion of participatory approaches little has been reported on the practical achievement of such an approach in the day to day of early childhood education within school settings. This paper investigates talk and interaction in the everyday activities of a teacher and children in an Australian preparatory class (for children age 4-6 years) to see how ideas of child participation are experienced. We use an interactional analytic approach to demonstrate how participatory methods are employed in practical ways to manage routine interactions. Analysis shows that whilst the teacher seeks the children’s opinion and involves them in decision-making, child participation is at times constrained by the context and institutional categories of “teacher” and “student” that are jointly produced in their talk. The paper highlights tensions that arise for teachers as they balance a pedagogical intent of “teaching” and the associated institutional expectations, with efforts to engage children in decision-making. Recommendations include adopting a variety of conversational styles when engaging with children; consideration of temporal concerns and the need to acknowledge the culture of the school.

Innovation, interaction, and inclusion : heritage luxury brands in collusion with the consumer

Many luxury heritage brands operate on the misconception that heritage is interchangeable with history rather than representative of the emotional response they originally developed in their customer. This idea of heritage as static history inhibits innovation, prevents dynamic renewal and impedes their ability to redefine, strengthen and position their brand in current and emerging marketplaces. This paper examines a number of heritage luxury brands that have successfully identified the original emotional responses they developed in their customers and, through innovative approaches in design, marketing, branding and distribution evoke these responses in contemporary consumers. Using heritage and innovation hand-in-hand, these brands have continued to grow and develop a vision of heritage that incorporates both historical and contemporary ideas to meet emerging customer needs. While what constitutes a ‘luxury’ item is constantly challenged in this era of accessible luxury products, up scaling and aspirational spending, this paper sees consumers’ emotional needs as the key element in defining the concept of luxury. These emotional qualities consistently remain relevant due to their ability to enhance a positive sense of identity for the brand user. Luxury is about the ‘experience’ not just the product providing the consumer with a sense of enhanced status or identity through invoked feelings of exclusivity, authenticity, quality, uniqueness and culture. This paper will analyse luxury heritage brands that have successfully combined these emotional values with those of their ‘heritage’ to create an aura of authenticity and nostalgia that appeals to contemporary consumers. Like luxury, the line where clothing becomes fashion is blurred in the contemporary fashion industry; however, consumer emotion again plays an important role. For example, clothing becomes ‘fashion’ for consumers when it affects their self perception rather than fulfilling basic functions of shelter and protection. Successful luxury heritage brands can enhance consumers’ sense of self by involving them in the ‘experience’ and ‘personality’ of the brand so they see it as a reflection of their own exclusiveness, authentic uniqueness, belonging and cultural value. Innovation is a valuable tool for heritage luxury brands to successfully generate these desired emotional responses and meet the evolving needs of contemporary consumers. While traditionally fashion has been a monologue from brand to consumer, new technology has given consumers a voice to engage brands in a conversation to express their evolving needs, ideas and feedback. As a result, in this consumer-empowered era of information sharing, this paper defines innovation as the ability of heritage luxury brands to develop new design and branding strategies in response to this consumer feedback while retaining the emotional core values of their heritage. This paper analyses how luxury heritage brands can effectively position themselves in the contemporary marketplace by separating heritage from history to incorporate innovative strategies that will appeal to consumer needs of today and tomorrow.

Learning and teaching from the edge to centre stage : Critical factors in embedding sustainable university-wide engagement in external awards and grants funding initiatives.

Teaching awards, grants and fellowships are strategies used to recognise outstanding contributions to learning and teaching, encourage innovation, and to shift learning and teaching from the edge to centre stage. Examples range from school, faculty and institutional award and grant schemes to national schemes such as those offered by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC), the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in the United States, and the Fund for the Development of Teaching and Learning in higher education in the United Kingdom. The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) has experienced outstanding success in all areas of the ALTC funding since the inception of the Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in 2004. This paper reports on a study of the critical factors that have enabled sustainable and resilient institutional engagement with ALTC programs. As a lens for examining the QUT environment and practices, the study draws upon the five conditions of the framework for effective dissemination of innovation developed by Southwell, Gannaway, Orrell, Chalmers and Abraham (2005, 2010): 1. Effective, multi-level leadership and management 2. Climate of readiness for change 3. Availability of resources 4. Comprehensive systems in institutions and funding bodies 5. Funding design The discussion on the critical factors and practical and strategic lessons learnt for successful university-wide engagement offer insights for university leaders and staff who are responsible for learning and teaching award, grant and associated internal and external funding schemes.

Teaching porn

This article gives an account of my experiences as a student and teacher of pornography in the UK university context. From my time as a student at Glasgow University in the late 1970s, to my classes on sexual transgression at Strathclyde in the 2000s, I trace changing attitudes to the pornographic, against the background of changing political and technological environments. The article considers the pedagogy of porn against the backdrop of pro- and anti-porn feminism, the rise of gay rights, and the impact of the internet. Under these influences, and over a period of three decades, pornography was destigmatized and redefined in a variety of contexts, from the irony of lad culture to the postmodern humour of the Graham Norton Show and the pro-porn feminism of the post-Madonna era.

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.