I examine the evolution of trade organizations in the southwest from their early manifestation to their present configurations with a particular focus on Trading Posts as socio-cultural and economic exchange organizations. At their inception as general stores they served displaced and remote populations, while at their peak they were social, cultural, and economic hubs connecting various ethnic groups. More recently, they have become non-profit and profit entities, both on- and off-reservation, and tribal government organizations, some of which still incorporate (...) notions of socially responsible business. (shrink)

We develop the concept of ‘aesthetic practices’ to capture the work needed for population data to be disseminated via government data portals. Specifically, we look at the Census Hub of the European Statistical System and the Danish Ministry of Education’s Data Warehouse. These portals form part of open government data initiatives, which we understand as governing technologies. We argue that to function as such, aesthetic practices are required so that data produced at dispersed sites can be brought into relation and (...) projected as populations in forms such as bar charts, heat maps and tables. Two examples of aesthetic practices are analysed based on ethnographic studies we have conducted on the production of data for the Hub and Warehouse: metadata and data cleaning. Metadata enables data to come into relation by containing and accounting for the differences between data. Data cleaning deals with the indeterminacies and absences of data and involves algorithms to determine what values data can obtain so they can be brought into relation. We attend to how both aesthetic practices involve normative decisions that make absent what exceeds them: embodied knowledge that cannot or has not been documented as well as data that cannot meet the forms required of data portals. While these aesthetic practices are necessary to sustain data portals as ‘sites of projection,’ we also bring critical attention to their performative effects for knowing, enacting and governing populations. (shrink)

An influential part of the New York psychoanalytic scene for more than 50 years, Sabert "Sabe" Basescu is regarded as an outstanding analyst and a significant proponent of the integration of existentialism and phenomenology into psychoanalytic theory and practice. Existential themes serve as a central hub, a crossroads or meeting place for a variety of contemporary psychoanalytic approaches. Basescu was ahead of his time in anticipating these current trends – his teaching and writing were significant in the genesis of the (...) relational turn as well as the ongoing development of the interpersonal tradition, thus it seems fitting that contemporary analysts remember him now. To that end, this book comprises a selection of seven of Sabe’s articles, written across his career and exploring such issues as self-disclosure in the therapy session, the origins of creativity, and even his own anxieties as an analyst. Preceding each original paper is a thoughtful commentary by a different member of the contemporary psychoanalytic community, providing theoretical and clinical as well as personal context for Sabe’s work. Opening with an introduction that contextualizes the existential and phenomenological influences in psychoanalysis and closing with a heartfelt afterword by Sabe’s wife, this book is a fitting tribute to a man who is known for his warm, engaging demeanor even through the misfortunes of his elder years, and whose legacy in the field still resonates through contemporary voices. (shrink)

This is an important book precisely because there is none other quite like it.