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by Eric Poehler
2011, In R. Laurence and D. Newsome (eds.), Rome, Ostia and Pompeii: Movement and Space (London: OUP).
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2016, The Economy of Pompeii
The focus of this chapter is movement through the Porta Esquilina in the Republican Wall and the Porta Tiburtina in the Aurelianic Wall, alongside an evaluation of the mutual influence of traffic and urban development from the time of Augustus to the late fifth century. Two decisive moments are identified. The first is the Augustan period, characterized by a great expansion and modernization of the infrastructure in the periphery. The second is the fifth century, by which time the construction of the Aurelianic Wall has led to the development of new urban nodes and a process of monumentalization of the Porta Tiburtina area.
2017, M. Flohr and A. I. Wilson (eds), The Economy of Pompeii (Oxford Studies on the Roman Economy). Oxford, Oxford University Press
This volume presents fourteen papers by Roman archaeologists and historians discussing approaches to the economic history of Pompeii, and the role of the Pompeian evidence in debates about the Roman economy. Four themes are discussed. The first of these is the position of Pompeii and its agricultural environment, discussing the productivity and specialization of agriculture in the Vesuvian region, and the degree to which we can explain Pompeii’s size and wealth on the basis of the city’s economic hinterland. A second issue discussed is what Pompeians got out of their economy: how well-off were people in Pompeii? This involves discussing the consumption of everyday consumer goods, analyzing archaeobotanical remains to highlight the quality of Pompeian diets, and discussing what bone remains reveal about the health of the inhabitants of Pompeii. A third theme is economic life in the city: how are we to understand the evidence for crafts and manufacturing? How are we to assess Pompeii’s commercial topography? Who were the people who actually invested in constructing shops and workshops? In which economic contexts were Pompeian paintings produced? Finally, the volume discusses money and business: how integrated was Pompeii into the wider world of commerce and exchange, and what can the many coins found at Pompeii tell us about this? What do the wax tablets found near Pompeii tell us about trade in the Bay of Naples in the first century AD? Together, the chapters of this volume highlight how Pompeii became a very rich community, and how it profited from its position in the centre of the Roman world.
Flohr, M. and Wilson, A. I. (2017). 'Introduction: investigating an urban economy', in M. Flohr and A. I. Wilson (eds), The Economy of Pompeii (Oxford Studies on the Roman Economy). Oxford, 1-19.
This introductory chapter to "The Economy of Pompeii" sets the agenda of the volume, and introduces the reader to the historiography of the Pompeian economy and to recent developments in Pompeian studies, before introducing the chapters of this volume and discussing some of the trends emerging from the volume, and how they relate to current developments in scholarship on the Roman economy.
2013
The World of the Fullo takes a detailed look at the fullers, craftsmen who dealt with high-quality garments, of Roman Italy. Analyzing the social and economic worlds in which the fullers lived and worked, it tells the story of their economic circumstances, the way they organized their workshops, the places where they worked in the city, and their everyday lives on the shop floor and beyond. Through focusing on the lower segments of society, Flohr uses everyday work as the major organizing principle of the narrative: the volume discusses the decisions taken by those responsible for the organization of work, and how these decisions subsequently had an impact on the social lives of people carrying out the work. It emphasizes how socio-economic differences between cities resulted in fundamentally different working lives for many of their people, and that not only were economic activities shaped by Roman society, they in turn played a key role in shaping it. Using an in-depth and qualitative analysis of material remains related to economic activities, with a combined study of epigraphic and literary records, this volume portrays an insightful view of the socio-economic history of urban communities in the Roman world.
The Legal Understanding of Slavery: From the Historical to the Contemporary, (Oxford: Oxford University Press)
This chapter investigates the economic performance of the Pompeian countryside. In particular, it evaluates to what extent the countryside provided the basic staples the city needed — such as grain, oil, and fuel —and to what extent it produced marketable surpluses. To find an answer to these questions, this chapter first reconstructs the ancient landscape of the environs of Vesuvius, and calculates the scale of local demand by reconstructing the region’s urban and rural population. Analysing the evidence for agriculture from both literary sources and archaeological data, it then attempts to create a model that makes it possible to quantify the scale of production and assess its relation to regional demand.
In the opening images of the documentary The Chicago Sessions, produced by the Dutch Broadcaster VPRO in 2009, Naomi Klein states that “class” had returned to America with a vengeance. This statement refers to the recent opposition between “Main Street” and “Wall Street,” and Klein argues that Milton Friedman’s views on the end of classes, by generalizing ownership of capital built on mass access to shares and real estate, had failed. Although Klein might have spotted a true opposition of forces between those who own companies, “Wall Street,” and those who have had access to credit in order to emulate capitalist ownership, “Main Street,” we would argue that the fundamental opposition rising from the crisis is built not around ownership but between the very values that sustain those practices. These values are the cultures of “networked self-interest,” which have been the basis of the very deployment of the crisis, versus the cultures of “networked belonging,” which are currently being built.
2013, Humans and the Environment: New Archaeological Perspectives for the 21st Century
"Disasters often de-scribe (Blanchot 1995: 7); they evade written description or complete encapsulation in the narratives we try to create about them. In this chapter, I explore the inveterate metaphor that Pompeii and the ad 79 eruption of Vesuvius have provided in both archaeological literature and larger western culture. I suggest that this metaphor is not only incomplete, which per Blanchot’s admonition is inherent to accounts of disaster, but is also erroneous and needs to be significantly revised in terms of how it frames environmental perceptions of the past and present and the temporality of the archaeological record. While much of the entrenched allegorical role of Pompeii should be jettisoned, the metonymy of the site remains exceptionally important in that it reveals how integral archaeological fieldwork can be in larger societal conceptions of how humans and their environment intersect in the promiscuous nature and culture of disaster."
Few people would dispute the claim that new technologies bring changes to the way people communicate, act, and organize their social relations. Technologies such as tablet computers certainly have transformative potential. Users of iPads recognize that their relationship to the office has changed now that they are perpetually connected, and users of social media have found that their private lives are now much more public than they once were.
This is the last un-edited version of a chapter in the book 'Pompeii in the public imagination', ed. Sh.Hales and J. Paul, OUP (Classical presences Series): This chapter examines the classical revival in Italy, which started around 1860, shortly before the unification of the country as a kingdom. Contrary to the British and the French revivals — mostly interpreted as spreading the values of the bourgeoisie whilst appearing to remain politically neutral — the Italian classical revival had a strong political commitment. During the Risorgimento, ancient Rome played an important role in what has been called the ‘invention of tradition’. The Italians who dreamed of and fought for an independent, unified country stressed the ancient roots, and therefore the pre-existence, of the Italian Nation. After unification, this concept was appropriated by the ruling class who needed to achieve in reality the unity of the country that had now been obtained on paper. Within this historical frame, classical-revival paintings were commissioned by branches of government to convey the new identity of, and to celebrate, the new state. But the subject of this chapter is not that official propaganda: instead, it investigates how this same manner of painting was used to show the darker side of ancient history, one which was often connected with political opposition.
On decadence as portrayed by Marcel Proust in early 20th century Paris, and the Classical Tradition
2013
2018, Wilson, A. I. and Bowman, A. K. (2018). 'Introduction: trade, commerce, and the state', in A. I. Wilson and A. K. Bowman (eds), Trade, commerce, and the state in the Roman world (Oxford Studies on the Roman Economy), 1–24. Oxford: Oxford University Press
This interdisciplinary volume presents eighteen papers by Roman historians and archaeologists, discussing trade in the Roman empire in the period c. 100 BC to AD 350, and in particular the role of the Roman state, in shaping the institutional framework for trade within and outside the empire, in taxing that trade, and in intervening in the markets to ensure the supply of particular commodities, especially for the city of Rome and for the army. The introduction sets the contributions of this volume within the context of scholarly debate over the scale, nature and importance of Roman trade since the mid twentieth centuries, and highlights the conceptual links and common leitmotifs between papers in the volume.
2012, Materiality and Organizing: Social Interaction in a Technological World
The research at the nexus of technology-organizational change has converged on the materiality of technology as a fundamental theoretical concern. In this paper, we highlight three major weaknesses in how the extant research conceptualizes technology: conflation of product categories over technologies; superimposition of feature and technology; and static conception of technology over time. We then point out how these weaknesses tend to decontextualize technology-in-use and thus under-emphasize technology’s materiality. We go on to propose affordances as a viable scaffolding to undergird the development of a conceptual apparatus that takes account of materiality more holistically and in a more relational manner. We conclude by pointing out the challenges ahead in the further development of affordances concept to account for technology’s materiality.
2014, En Dreyfuss, R., Rodríguez Garavito, C. (edits.) Balancing Wealth and Health: The Battle over Intellectual Property and Access to Medicines in Latin America. Colección Law and Global Governance. Oxford University Press
2012, The Role of Elites in Economic Development
2017, A, K. Bowman and A. Wilson (ed.) Trade, Commerce, and the State in the Roman World
Modern scholarly literature discussing the role of transport in the ancient economy has traditionally seen a separation between overland transport and maritime transport, and has rarely dwelt on the issue of transport by river or canal. This is largely due to distinctions drawn in the cost of land and sea transport, a well-known debate, which requires no full rehearsal here. 1 Attempts have been made, however, to establish ways in which transport was integrated, the idea being that land, rivers, and seas were connected, with ports on either rivers or coasts serving as transport hubs. 2 While it is clear that this is a matter that needs further unpacking, here I want to concentrate on Roman Egypt in the first three centuries AD, considering the integration of transport, before moving on to consider one of the fundamentals of the economic life of Roman Egypt, the transport of tax grain and other commodities by river. Although the transport of grain for the state was not the only river transport that took place, and other transport of a private nature will be considered here, we know most about the transport of grain for the state simply because relevant documents are more commonly preserved in the papyrological record. It would be normal here to discuss the limitations of papyrological evidence, and to make a case for its wide relevance against accusations of the uniqueness of Egypt and its evidence. A stronger stance should be taken, however, for, although the Nile was an important transport highway, it is not unique as a river in the Roman Empire, in the sense that it provided an excellent system of communication, although other rivers may have benefited from a more extensive system of complementary land routes. However, the challenges and economic realities faced by Egypt's inhabitants were similar to those of, for example, their Gaulish counterparts on the Rhône, the annual inundation
2013
Ancient religions are usually treated as collective and political phenomena and, apart from a few towering figures, the individual religious agent has fallen out of view. Addressing this gap, the essays in this volume focus on the individual and individuality in ancient Mediterranean religion. Even in antiquity, individual religious action was not determined by traditional norms handed down through families and the larger social context, but rather options were open and choices were made. On the part of the individual, this development is reflected in changes in 'individuation', the parallel process of a gradual full integration into society and the development of self-reflection and of a notion of individual identity. These processes are analysed within the Hellenistic and Imperial periods, down to Christian-dominated late antiquity, in both pagan polytheistic as well as Jewish monotheistic settings. The volume focuses on individuation in everyday religious practices in Phoenicia, various Greek cities, and Rome, and as identified in institutional developments and philosophical reflections on the self as exemplified by the Stoic Seneca. Readership: For students and scholars interested in ancient history, classical studies, and the history of religion.
2013, Classics and the Modern World: A Democratic Turn? ed. L. Hardwick & S. Harrison
“The Recursivity of Global Lawmaking in the Struggle for an Argentine Policy on Pharmaceutical Patents,” in Balancing Wealth and Health: Global Administrative Law and the Battle over Intellectual Property and Access to Medicines in Latin America, ed. Rochelle Dreyfuss and César Rodríguez Garavito, (Oxford University Press, 2014). http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199676743.do
This is a book about the self, self-consciousness, and subjectivity. Clearly we are animal creatures, with animal bodies and animal desires and appetites. Equally clearly, we are conscious beings with interiority, able to think of ourselves as ourselves. Two influential depictions of our humanity have increasingly come to seem unworkable: the scientistic picture, that we are nothing but especially complex networks of neural firings; and the Abrahamic picture, that we are immaterial souls associated with but separable from our animal bodies. Do the Indians, who thought long and hard about the question of what it is to be a human being, have any alternative advice? I believe so. The answer I will offer arises out of my reflection upon their discussion, but is not the view of any single participant within it. My proposal will draw from Buddhist analyses of subjectivity and self-consciousness, and on other Indian theories of emergence, subconscious mechanisms, embodiment, and the emotions. What will gradually emerge from this exercise in conceptual retrieval from historical sources is a philosophical explanation of the compatibility of naturalism with the first-person stance, within the parameters of a new conception of self. Selves, embodied subjects of consciousness, come into view from the standpoint of a liberal naturalism. "Ganeri's book is truly impressive in its scope and sophistication. Even if one is not enamored of the idea of selves that are distinct from persons—as I am not—one will flnd this book a creative contribution to the discussion of persons. Although I lack the competence to judge Ganeri's interpretation of Indian texts, I highly recommend this book for its rich discussion as well as its complex account of the self. Ganeri's holistic, nonscientistic, and nonreductive approach to our mental lives will be highly congenial to those who appreciate the richness of mental life, including its flrst-personal aspects." —Lynne Rudder Baker, Review of Metaphysics 2013 "Ganeri manages the amazing feat of writing for two different audiences at once. One is Western-trained philosophers looking for answers to the puzzling questions the various properties of the self. They will find a thorough and sophisticated discussion that at the same time introduces them to a stunning set of intellectual gems from India's philosophical history. The second audience consists of scholars working on Ancient Indian materials dealing with the relation of body, mind, and self. Even though the discussion is going to be considerably more hard-going for this audience, they will find new insights into ways of thinking about the Ancient Indian discussion and the interrelation between various philosophical traditions on almost every page. The ease with which Ganeri manages to keep both audiences on board without sacrificing either philosophical sophistication, or distorting the nuances of the historical discussion by broad- brush generalizations found in less accomplished works on cross-cultural philosophical debates is nothing less than astonishing. It is no exaggeration to say that this book marks the beginning of a completely new phase in the study of Indian philosophy, one in which a firm grasp of the historical material forms the basis for going beyond pure exegesis, opening up the way for doing philosophy with ancient sources." —Jan Westerhoff, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2013 "Emergence is but one of the many important issues tackled in a book whose scope extends over a large range of philosophical puzzles about the self. There are intriguing taxonomies of theories of the mind, ancient and modern, and an abundance of critical discus- sion, including an acute critique of the Buddhist view of the self. Both because of the clarity of its grasp of the contemporary landscape in analytic philosophy of mind, and because of the special slant given by the author’s knowledge of Indian philosophy, the work has a lot to offer. While it would be unrealistic to expect from this (or perhaps any) book definitive solutions to the intractable problems of mind and body, Ganeri’s understanding of what it means to ap- proach these problems from a broadly naturalist perspective seems to me to be a good deal more nuanced, and more philosophically in- teresting, than much of the contemporary literature in the philosophy of mind." —John Cottingham, Philosophy, 2013
2010, ('Classical Presences' series)
This volume brings together scholars of modern and ancient culture to explore historical, textual, material and theoretical interactions between classics and imperialism during the heyday of the British Empire from the late eighteenth through to its collapse in the early decades of the twentieth century. It examines the multiple dialogues that developed between Classics and colonialism in this period and argues that the two exerted a formative influence on each other at various levels. Most at issue in the contexts where Classics and empire converge is the critical question of ownership: to whom does the classical past belong? Did the modern communities of the Mediterranean have pre-eminent ownership of the visual, literary and intellectual culture of Greece and Rome? Or could the populations and intellectual centres of Northern Europe stake a claim to this inheritance? And in what ways could non-European communities and powers – Africa, India, America – commandeer the classical heritage for themselves? In exploring the relationship between classics and imperialism in this period, this volume examines trends that are of current importance both to the discipline of Classics and to modern British cultural and intellectual history. Both classics and empire, this volume contests, can be better understood by examining them in tandem: the development of classical ideas, classical scholarship and classical imagery in this period was often directly or indirectly influenced by empire and imperial authority, and the British Empire itself was informed, shaped, legitimised and evaluated using classical models.
2013, Prevention and the Limits of the Criminal Law: Principles and Policies
2014
2013, New Approaches to Regional Interaction
This chapter explores new ways of organizing and governing the creation of economic value in today’s global economy. We build on Crouch’s (2006) critique of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) literature and stakeholder models of governance, expanding on his analysis in three ways. We analyse the limitations of existing, voluntaristic, market-based approaches to CSR, arguing that reliance on changes in employee and consumer taste will produce a societally sub-optimal level of externalities. We explore alternative ways to govern corporations that could foster more socially responsible behaviour, while attempting to minimize adverse impacts on economic efficiency and wealth creation, and we identify new models of organizing value-creating activities that offer alternatives to the for-profit public corporation, examining which organizational form is most appropriate for which type of activity.
This is a cross-linguistic approach to the typology of possession and its cultural context (first chapter of Possession and ownership, edited by Aikhenvald and Dixon, Oxford: OUP, 2013)
2014, S. H. Rigby and A. J. Minnis, eds, Historians on Chaucer: The General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales
This paper sets out three modern critical approaches to Chaucer's work (Chaucer as a conservative voice, Chaucer as in some sense radical or subversive, and Chaucer as open-ended) as an introduction to the studies of Chaucer's Canterbury pilgrims in the rest of this edited collection.