This paper develops an argument on the empathetic relationship between hunter and prey, as applied to the relations between small-scale fishers and fish. Drawing on ethnographic material from the Kemi River, and recent work on fishing, it suggests that although fishers often do not see the fish, they know their whereabouts and movements through an empathetic engagement with the fish. People on the Kemi do not see fish as merely the animal itself, but include in their empathetic relationship the behaviour and environment of the fish. An analysis of popular fishing techniques used subsequently illustrates that they represent what can be called an inversion of the fish's life story.

Given the cultural psychoanalytic tradition that shapes the thought of Argentineans and their current skepticism with regard to neurosciences when it comes to understanding human behavior, this article addresses the question of how a healthy neuroethics can develop in the country.

The Chinese Communist Party government has been forcefully promoting its jihua shengyu (planned fertility) program, known as the “one-child policy,” for more than three decades. A distinctive authoritarian model of population governance has been developed. A pertinent question to be asked is whether China’s one-child policy and the authoritarian model of population governance have a future. The answer must be no; they do not. Although there are many demographic, economic, and social rationales for terminating the one-child policy, the most fundamental reason for opposing its continuation is drawn from ethics. The key ethical rationale offered for the policy is that it promotes the common social good, not only for China and the Chinese people but for the whole human family. The major irony associated with this apparently convincing justification is that, although designed to improve living standards and help relieve poverty and underdevelopment, the one-child policy and the application of the authoritarian model have instead caused massive suffering to Chinese people, especially women, and made them victims of state violence. A lesson from China—one learned at the cost of individual and social suffering on an enormous scale—is that an essential prerequisite for the pursuit of the common good is the creation of adequate constraints on state power.

This paper examines the ethnography of nocturnal fishery and relationships with water, relevant for Evenkis occupying the northern coastal area of Lake Baikal, Siberia. The material arises from Evenkis of Kumora village who live near Lake Irkana and from archival sources. Although the nocturnal fishery is declared illegal in official legislation, local residents invoke memories to mark that practice as traditional and important for the local community since it is not merely a subsistence activity but also an emotional experience and long-term relationships with the landscape. This paper argues that local social memory devoted to this practice serves as a kind of fishing tool and a tool for supporting local ideas of how fishing should be governed. The collision between memory and water law is not discussed in terms of antagonism between local groups and authorities but as ignorance between memory-gifted people and the landscape, and memory-disabled official approaches to nocturnal fishing and its histories. Finally, memory-gifted human landscape relationships termed as ‘alliance’ are approached as a powerful conglomerate that ‘consumes’ authorised visions of fishing patterns in their own way.

As Croatia makes the transition from one political system and type of economy to another, there are inevitable social and political changes that have a profound affect on the healthcare system. This article charts some of the progress of change with respect to patients’ rights and informed consent.

“The Song of Roland: How the Middle Ages Aren’t Old” describes how a medieval epic can illuminate not only oppressive imperial histories but also contain resistance and critique. By highlighting the tension between hegemonic claims and hybrid practices, students become attuned to the ongoing circulation of divisive discourses and also learn ways to identify openings for mutuality. I propose several ways for instructors to expand their engagement with unfamiliar literatures: How can we embrace translation and the spirit of the curious amateur to grow our own knowledge and that of our students? Finally, I describe teaching techniques that foster pluralistic social dynamics in the classroom. Social learning increases students’ ability to engage sincerely across differences without the pressure to reach agreement. By providing platforms for students to safely self-disclose personal and academic backgrounds, and then connecting them to the course materials, instructors can amplify the social impact of learning itself.

In this collection we learn about varied livelihoods that are roughly grouped as northern small-scale fisheries. Two messages are particularly salient, and hence they connect nearly all the papers:

First, that small-scale fishing is paramount for social and cultural livelihoods, and an indispensable resource for reproduction of coastal communities. And second, that certain fish related practices are changing, or currently under threat, and thus threatening the core subsistence of coastal communities.

Fishing is a key livelihood for many people worldwide, and significantly contributes to global nutrition. However, there is an awareness of a widespread crisis in fisheries with profound ecological, social and cultural impacts (Urquhart and others 2013). The majority of people dependent on fishing are involved in small-scale fisheries, which stands in contrast to the narrow focus of most fishery science and policy on large-scale, capital intensive fishing (Berkes and others 2001). Small-scale fisheries require different approaches for research, policy and management, due to their specific technological, economic and sociocultural characteristics that differ from those of large-scale fisheries, as well as a large degree of internal diversity in terms of fish stocks, fishers’ backgrounds, vessel capacity, etc (see Afterword of this collection of papers).

This article revisits Irish criticism of the foundational period of postcolonial studies in view of its relevance to the topic of revisionism in contemporary postcolonial theory. Situating the status of Ireland and its literature in postcolonial studies, it suggests that the early distinction between academic “rereading” and creative “writing back” is a false one and that developments in Irish studies in the 1980s anticipate the more nuanced brands of contemporary postcolonialism. As a case in point, the article considers critical revisions of Irish Gothic fiction, which provided a context for various revisions conducted in the 1990s and early 2000s of the novel Dracula (1897) by Bram Stoker (1847–1912). It focuses on the “metrocolonial” concept introduced by Joseph Valente, which offers a means not only of connecting these revisions but of specifying the postcolonial status of Ireland and of relating revisionism to the revolutionary and reconciliatory strands of contemporary postcolonial theory.

This article offers clarifications and critiques of actor-network theory and its usefulness for music historiography. Reviewing the work of ANT theorists Bruno Latour, Annemarie Mol, and other social theorists (such as Georgina Born and Anna Tsing), the author explains that ANT is a methodology, not a theory. As a general introduction, the author outlines ANT's methodological presuppositions about human and non-human agency, action, ontology, and performance. He then examines how these methodological principles affect three concerns of music-historical interest: influence, genre, and context. In conclusion, he addresses problems related to temporality, critique, and reflexivity. He draws on music-historical examples after 1960: John Cage, the Jazz Composer's Guild, Henry Cow, Iggy Pop, and the Velvet Underground.