Dark Assemblages

This book examines strategies of transformation (becomings, image-making, and the phantasmagoric) that figure in four stories and a novel by Gothic fiction writer Pilar Pedraza (Spain, 1951). While critics have long associated the Bildungsroman with Gothic fiction, this study takes a close look at the developmental process itself: the means by which a protagonist, young or old, might transcend a deprived status to achieve a complete sense of self. Pedraza's works imply that, regardless of the path followed, a character's ability to think differently is crucial to progress. The fixed image, representative of an inflexible, socially determined mindset, arises as an obstacle to maturation. In "Días de perros," for example, a triangular arrangement of coins in a cigar box elucidates the connection between individual lives and the social order or assemblage. Literary texts, such as this one, serve as collective assemblages of enunciation, capable of exposing fixed images as powerful instruments of control. "Tristes Ayes del Águila Mejicana" discovers fixed images among the icons of Colonial Spain's exequias reales, used in this case to territorialize the evolving identity of indigenous peoples. The territory thatPedraza's fictionbest illuminates is, in reality, the image. When images remain fixed or territorialized, they uncannily infect the assemblages over which they exert influence. Placing emphasis on images that impact women, Pedraza, in "Anfiteatro," for example, deconstructs "cat woman," which, albeit a potentially subversive image in its early manifestations, eventually ceases to empower the feminine, lashing it, rather, to a burdensome stereotype. Territorialized, the feminine must, then, break free from the image in order to discover representations more capable of illuminating present-day challenges. The phrase "dark assemblages," drawn from Deleuze and Guattari's A Thousand Plateaus, gestures toward societal stagnation as a decisive factor in individual evolvement. Gothic fiction represents an uneven landscape, in that it tenders the possibility of a social critique yet, equally well, lends itself to the exclusion of specific identities and practices that society brands as anomalous. Pedraza's Gothic fiction is, indeed, subversive, in that it offers readers original perceptions of modern day people and the assemblages, dark or otherwise, to which they belong.

The 1st International Congress on Stratigraphy (STRATI 2013), hold in Lisbon, 1–7 July 2013, follows the decision to internationalize the conferences previously organized by the French Committee of Stratigraphy (STRATI), the last one of which was held in Paris in 2010. Thus, the congress possesses both the momentum gained from an established conference event and the excitement of being the first International Congress on Stratigraphy. It is held under the auspices of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (IUGS) and it is envisaged that this first congress will lead to others being held in the future. This book includes all papers accepted for oral or poster presentation at the 1st International Congress on Stratigraphy. Papers include a short abstract, main text, figures, tables and references. Each paper has been reviewed by two internationally renowned scientists.

This study investigates the prehistoric transition from egalitarian to ranked social structure at Kitselas Canyon, Skeena River, British Columbia. It contributes to archaeological theory by developing and testing a model of the evolution of cultural complexity. A culture historical contribution is also made in the development of a prehistoric local sequence for Kitselas Canyon.

The concept of assemblage has emerged in recent decades as a central tool for describing, analysing, and transforming dynamic systems in a variety of disciplines. Coined by Deleuze and Guattari in relation to different fields of knowledge, human practices, and nonhuman arrangements, “assemblage” is variously applied today in the arts, philosophy, and human and social sciences, forming links not only between disciplines but also between critical thought and artistic practice. Machinic Assemblages focuses on the concept’s uses, transpositions, and appropriations in the arts, bringing together the voices of artists and philosophers that have been working on and with this topic for many years with those of emerging scholar-practitioners. The volume embraces exciting new and reconceived artistic practices that discuss and challenge existing assemblages, propose new practices within given assemblages, and seek to invent totally unprecedented assemblages.

This book reflects on the way in which war and police/policing intersect in contemporary Western-led interventions in the global South. The volume combines empirically oriented work with ground-breaking theoretical insights and aims to collect, for the first time, thoughts on how war and policing converge, amalgamate, diffuse and dissolve in the context both of actual international intervention and in understandings thereof. The book uses the caption WAR:POLICE to highlight the distinctiveness of this volume in presenting a variety of approaches that share a concern for the assemblage of war-police as a whole. The volume thus serves to bring together critical perspectives on liberal interventionism where the logics of war and police/policing blur and bleed into a complex assemblage of WAR:POLICE. Contributions to this volume offer an understanding of police as a technique of ordering and collectively take issue with accounts of the character of contemporary war that argue that war is simply reduced to policing. In contrast, the contributions show how – both historically and conceptually – the two are ‘always already’ connected. Contributions to this volume come from a variety of disciplines including international relations, war studies, geography, anthropology, and law but share a critical/poststructuralist approach to the study of international intervention, war and policing. This volume will be useful to students and scholars who have an interest in social theories on intervention, war, security, and the making of international order.

Coastal Habitat Conservation: New Perspectives and Sustainable Development of Biodiversity in the Anthropocene offers the latest research and approaches to biodiversity conservation in coastal areas. The book synthesizes the background of foundational conservation views and provides new perspectives and recent strategies within a sustainable development context for coastal species and organic life. Written by a team of international authors with expertise in wide-ranging issues of biodiversity conservation, this book analyzes the challenges of conserving marine habitats and species that humanity faces in the Anthropocene era. Sections explore emerging and unforeseen impacts within a changing world, specifically, the marine-based conservation in the context of global change, coastal urbanization and mitigation of its environmental impacts, marine bioinvasions, conservation strategies for of out-of-sight communities like caves, habitat restoration, and the citizen science and its challenging role in monitoring conservation. Discusses different strategies to deal with various biological and ecological impacts on coastal marine species and habitats Offers new insights into the practices of marine conservation in the Anthropocene Led by editors whose expertise includes marine biodiversity, marine ecology and marine habitat conservation