This thesis examines how innovation is practiced, imagined, mobilized, and reinterpreted by China’s local developers and its subjects. The Chinese innovation movement is not the same as the ... Show moreThis thesis examines how innovation is practiced, imagined, mobilized, and reinterpreted by China’s local developers and its subjects. The Chinese innovation movement is not the same as the “disruptive innovation” of recent years mainly driven by digital technology in the European and North American contexts. The state plays a very salient role in innovation, investing in the social and economic system to provide a constant demand for innovation to unleash the dynamism of development.The aim of this thesis is to contribute to the understanding of the state’s role in socio-economic transformation and its governance model in innovation activities. This thesis discusses the state-market-society relationship not merely from an institutionalist perspective that focuses on the interplay between the state, the market, and society. I discovered that the state creates a range of government institutions to regulate and shape society. Further, in recent years the local state has been an important producer of the emergence of China’s new civil society that drives innovation and entrepreneurship as ways to enhance social mobility. Show less
The central argument of this thesis is to establish the link between mobility, material culture and urbanisation in Africa with special focus on the urban elite of Baba I in the North West Region... Show moreThe central argument of this thesis is to establish the link between mobility, material culture and urbanisation in Africa with special focus on the urban elite of Baba I in the North West Region of Cameroon. The study lies within an intricate political system and topography. The thesis questions the effects of material culture on landscape transformation of the society through mobility. Over the past decades, the use and acquisition of land have changed greatly with increased geographical and social mobility. This has caused tremendous effects on the lives of people be it politically, economically and socially and above all in the dynamics of land acquisition and development. The changes on the landscapes are not only physically visible but also socio-culturally with the way people carry themselves around through their daily interactions. Thus, the thesis attempts to study these transformation processes in the form of an ethnography of mobility and belonging of the Papiakum people of Baba I. An extra contribution of this thesis is that it is the first to tell the story of the Papiakum who have been glossed over by the early colonial ethnographers and anthropologists of the North Western Grassfields of Cameroon. The research focused on a specific group: the urban dwellers of Baba I who are constructing at home. I tried to understand the meaning and importance of land and houses (home) within the Baba community in which these elites invest. The study of these changing infrastructural landscapes gave an insight into the socio-political and cultural settings and challenges as well as the role of the elite in development.. The construction of these houses and other infrastructure are an expression of this elite’s belonging as required by Papiakum cultural tenets. Show less
A stable housing situation is considered to be an important condition for successful reentry after a period in prison. Despite this presumed importance of the housing situation of (ex-)prisoners,... Show moreA stable housing situation is considered to be an important condition for successful reentry after a period in prison. Despite this presumed importance of the housing situation of (ex-)prisoners, relatively few studies have been done on this topic, especially in the Netherlands. This thesis therefore provides insight into the housing andmobility of prisoners and ex-prisoners and their relation with recidivism. To answer research questions about housing, mobility and recidivism, it uses data from the Dutch Prison Project, a longitudinal, nationwide study on the consequences of imprisonment. One of the main findings was the large amount of variation in housing patterns of (ex-)prisoners. Many (ex-)prisoners are homeless once or several times before or after their stay in prison. Homelessness is much more common among (ex-)prisoners than it is in the general Dutch population. Furthermore, ex-prisoners move more often than people without a history of incarceration. Both homelessness and moving seem to increase the chances of recidivism. This study underlined the importance of policymakers focusing on all aspects of housing, in order to achieve the biggest reduction in recidivism. Show less
This thesis presents an investigation into how geopolitical change and religious control are reflected in the composition of copper-alloy costume artefacts, recovered from Roman and early medieval... Show moreThis thesis presents an investigation into how geopolitical change and religious control are reflected in the composition of copper-alloy costume artefacts, recovered from Roman and early medieval contexts. It engages with the challenging topic of portable X-ray Florescence Spectrometry use in archaeology, especially as applied to corroded copper-alloy artefacts. The relevance is twofold. Firstly it helps us better understand the globalising effects of the Roman Empire on distant cultures and the emergence of the western economy after the end of antiquity. This is investigated by detecting changes in craft production, considered a proxy for understanding changes in past economies and societies. Secondly it advances a methodology for the study of copper-alloy objects. Subsequently the composition of Roman brooches from Germania Inferior, suggested a strong link between brass and Roman military production. This connection was also seen in other parts of the Roman world, suggesting a degree of centralisation or control. The earliest roman objects found in the Baltic States, far north of the Limes frontier, are also in this 'Roman' alloy. These objects had a lasting impact on the peoples of this region. They adopted and adapted them stylistically to suit their local preferences for centuries after they first appeared. Show less
Conflict mobiles are individuals whose mobility—and lack of mobility—is informed by violence andconflict. Based on personal narratives of those who move across borders within and beyond the Central... Show moreConflict mobiles are individuals whose mobility—and lack of mobility—is informed by violence andconflict. Based on personal narratives of those who move across borders within and beyond the Central African region, this thesis is an ethnography of mobility. By taking mobility as its axiom and placing the lives of people on the move at its centre, the goal of this thesis is twofold. On the one hand, it contests fixed (national) borders and defies static historical readings of Central Africa. On the other hand, it investigates how the multiple trajectories of individuals in Central African give form to the mobility paradigm. There are many avatars of the conflict mobile, the CAR (Central African Republic) refugee-students in Kinshasa (DR Congo), on whom the empirical part of this thesis is based, form only one. It is these students’ journeys, their life stories and means of fending for themselves, as well as their dreams and frustrations, that stand at the core of this thesis. By acknowledging the role of the people (including artists) with whom researchers produce knowledge, this thesis finally invites the reader to ‘un-border’ by looking at the field, and academia, through a mobile lens. Show less
This dissertation is a study of archaeological remains left behind by nomadic communities in the Black Desert, situated in the northeast of modern Jordan. Between the Hellenistic and Early Islamic... Show moreThis dissertation is a study of archaeological remains left behind by nomadic communities in the Black Desert, situated in the northeast of modern Jordan. Between the Hellenistic and Early Islamic periods - roughly the late 1st millennium BC and the 1st millennium AD - the Black Desert was frequented by nomadic communities who are best known for the Safaitic inscriptions and rock art they left behind on the basalt boulders that characterise this desert environment. These remains, however, provide an incomplete view of those who carved them, and this study aims to provide new information on these nomads by studying the rich and well-preserved archaeological remains they left behind. It specifically focuses on stone-built architecture, notably burial cairns found often on hilltops and ridges, and enclosures situated at campsites used by nomads. These features are studied through archaeological methods such as remote sensing, field surveys and excavations. The study makes clear that in addition to textual and pictorial carvings nomadic communities invested significantly in their surroundings through the construction of elaborate and long-lasting structures. These served various social and economic purposes on the short and long term. The study thus provides an alternative view on nomad-landscape interaction in anntiquity. Show less
There is little evidence of the routes connecting Amerindian communities in the Caribbean prior to and just after 1492. Uncovering possible canoe routes between these communities can help to... Show moreThere is little evidence of the routes connecting Amerindian communities in the Caribbean prior to and just after 1492. Uncovering possible canoe routes between these communities can help to explain the structure, capabilities, and limitations of the physical links in their social and material networks. This book evaluates how routes connecting islands indicate the structure of past inter-island networks, by using computer modeling. Computer modeling and least-cost pathway analysis is a popular approach for analyzing the physical connection between sites in archaeology. Over the past three decades researchers have explored several theories and methods to analyze least-cost pathways on landscapes. Land-based least-cost efforts have outpaced the number of works evaluating optimal travel routes across the sea’s surface. Perhaps as a result, no community standard for using computer- and GIS-based methods to model canoe or sailing routes exists. Although methods used in previous research often focus on determining the time-cost and success of specific routes, these measures have been calculated or judged in different ways. One way this book adds to the discussion of seascape modeling is by focusing on inter-island voyaging, or the process of maintained connections between island sites, a technique rarely explored in sea-based least-cost pathways analysis. Show less
With a focus on Cameroonian migrants from Pinyin and Mankon who are currently living in Cape Town and the Netherlands, this volume examines the workings of the social fabric of mobile communities.... Show moreWith a focus on Cameroonian migrants from Pinyin and Mankon who are currently living in Cape Town and the Netherlands, this volume examines the workings of the social fabric of mobile communities. It sheds light on how these communities are crafting lives for themselves in the host country and simultaneously linking up with the home country thanks to advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and road and air transport. ICTs and mobilities have complemented social relational interaction and provide migrants today with opportunities to partake in cultural practices that express their Pinyin-ness and Mankon-ness. Pinyin and Mankon migrants are still as rooted in the past as they are in the present. They were born into a community with its own sense of home, moral ethos and cultural pride but live in a context of accelerated ICTs and mobility that is fast changing the way they live their lives Show less
In this thesis, clinical and functional outcomes of a large cohort of hip fracture patients are described, with regards to anemia, blood transfusion, concomitant fractures, loss of mobility and... Show moreIn this thesis, clinical and functional outcomes of a large cohort of hip fracture patients are described, with regards to anemia, blood transfusion, concomitant fractures, loss of mobility and place of residence. Secondly, risk factors for poor outcome, both in a clinical and a functional perspective were identified. Finally, specific risk scores for delirium and discharge to an alternative location have been developed and validated. Show less
Britons abroad is a contribution to the study of ancient mobility in the Roman Empire with the focus on the mobility of materials and people and the ways objects and people interact dialectically... Show moreBritons abroad is a contribution to the study of ancient mobility in the Roman Empire with the focus on the mobility of materials and people and the ways objects and people interact dialectically when brought to a new environment. This study looks at Britons who, voluntarily or forcedly, moved overseas in the period of the first to third centuries AD and identifies the ways one can use to trace their mobility. It also explores the changes in the personal and communal identification as expressed by Britons, who settled abroad, and tries to locate a unified element in the (ethnic) identities when compared to those people who stayed put with those who migrated. The exploration of ‘Britishness’ abroad in the Roman Empire is set out on a variety of levels: individual (personal migration from Britain) and communal (the occurrence of British military units abroad); human mobility and mobility of artefacts; movement of British-born and Continental-born to and from Britain. This research approaches the study of mobility and social changes in moved communities through a province-by-province study of archaeological sites and their assemblages but is not limited to the physical borders of the Roman Empire. Show less
Patterns of paleomobility in the Caribbean were studied through an inter-disciplinary approach using a combination of archaeological, osteological, mortuary, and isotopic data. Samples of human... Show morePatterns of paleomobility in the Caribbean were studied through an inter-disciplinary approach using a combination of archaeological, osteological, mortuary, and isotopic data. Samples of human enamel from 360 individuals from multiple sites spanning a broad range of geographic and temporal contexts were analyzed for strontium isotope composition. These results were interpreted in reference to a database of strontium isotope variation for the Caribbean biosphere created through the analysis of 288 modern and archeological animal and plant samples. These combined strontium isotope datasets contributed to assessments of the spatial patterning of bioavailable strontium isotopes in the region and to estimations of the local range of isotope variation for the different site populations. These ranges were used to determine whether individuals were of local or nonlocal origin and were then analyzed to examine variability in patterns of migration, with a specific focus on testing possible relationships between residential origins and biological sex, age at death, chronology, grave goods, and dietary practices. Carbon and oxygen isotope analyses of dental enamel were also conducted on a subset of 50 individuals to assess their potential for provenance studies in the Caribbean region and for investigating the origins of suspected long-distance migrants. Show less
In this book the concept of mobility is explored for the archaeology of the Amazonian and Caribbean region. As a result of technological and methodological progress in archaeology, mobility has... Show moreIn this book the concept of mobility is explored for the archaeology of the Amazonian and Caribbean region. As a result of technological and methodological progress in archaeology, mobility has become increasingly visible on the level of the individual. However, as a concept it does not seem to fit with current approaches in Amazonian archaeology, which favour a move away from viewing small mobile groups as models for the deeper past. Instead of ignoring such ethnographic tyrannies, in this book they are considered to be essential for arriving at a different past. Viewing archaeological mobility as the sum of movements of both people and objects, the empirical part of Amotopoan Trails focuses on Amotopo, a small contemporary Trio village in the interior of Suriname. The movements of the Amotopoans are tracked and positioned in a century of Trio dynamics, ultimately yielding a recent archaeology of Surinamese-Trio movements for the Sipaliwini River basin (1907-2008). Alongside the construction of this archaeology, novel mobility concepts are introduced. They provide the conceptual footholds which enable the envisioning of mobility at various temporal scales, from a decade up to a century, the sequence of which has remained a blind spot in Caribbean and Amazonian archaeology. Show less
Prehistoric human diet can be reconstructed by the analysis of carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and sulphur (S) stable isotopes in bone, whereas ancient mobility and provenance can be studied using the... Show morePrehistoric human diet can be reconstructed by the analysis of carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and sulphur (S) stable isotopes in bone, whereas ancient mobility and provenance can be studied using the isotopes of strontium (Sr) and oxygen (O) in tooth enamel, and of sulphur in bone. Although thirty years have passed since the first application of the stable isotope method to European skeletal material, gaps in biochemical research have remained within German archaeology. This dissertation seeks to fill these gaps by providing novel evidence from multiple isotope analyses in different transitional periods of German prehistory, including the earliest Neolithic farmers of the Linearbandkaramik culture, the Early Bronze Age necropolis site of Singen, and the elite burial population from the Early Iron Age site of Magdalenenberg. To assess the local characteristics of Sr isotopes in south-western Germany, environmental samples (n=93) were collected and analysed from the different geological formations between the Black Forest and Lake Constance. As a result of this work, these reference data are now available for future research. A substantial dataset of C and N isotopes was obtained from the human populations from the Linearbandkeramik sites of Derenburg, Halberstadt and Karsdorf (n=97) in Central Germany. The data provides information on early Neolithic subsistence and individual diet, and can be connected to evidence from a previous palaeogenetic study on lactose intolerance. Furthermore, the analysis of contemporary fauna (n=45) provides novel evidence on Neolithic livestock management strategies. The reconstruction of ancient mobility using the isotopes of Sr, O and S provided information on human provenance at the Early Bronze Age cemetery site of Singen. While the population had been considered mobile because of exotic grave goods found at the site, biochemical evidence suggests all sampled individuals (n=29) originated and lived locally in the region of Lake Constance. A very distinct pattern was found at the Early Iron Age monumental tumulus site of Magdalenenberg in the Black Forest. The results of Sr, O and S analyses in the skeletal remains (n=90) of this elite Hallstatt Culture burial population suggest various regions of human origin. Only a small proportion of the people originated locally. The majority of the burial population is derived from the Black Forest highlands or from the plains towards Lake Constance. In some cases, individual origin could be assigned to specific areas in the Alps and Italy through the application of various isotope systems. Show less
Based on rich and wide-ranging data, this thesis describes the sensitive issue of the contemporary emancipation trajectories of agro-pastoralist Fulɓe in Central Mali. It explores how people are... Show moreBased on rich and wide-ranging data, this thesis describes the sensitive issue of the contemporary emancipation trajectories of agro-pastoralist Fulɓe in Central Mali. It explores how people are currently dealing with hierarchies they inherited from past master-slave relations and focuses on the relational dynamics between members of a network of migrants. The importance of mobility to identity is explored by analyzing the tensions that exist among migrants to reproduce or change hierarchical relations in post-slavery societies. To purchase a copy, please email: asc@ascleiden.nl, or check www.ascleiden.nl, under Publications. Show less
This study represents a contribution to the pre-Colonial archaeology of the Windward Islands in the Caribbean. The research aimed to determine how the Ceramic Age (400 BC – AD 1492) Amerindian... Show moreThis study represents a contribution to the pre-Colonial archaeology of the Windward Islands in the Caribbean. The research aimed to determine how the Ceramic Age (400 BC – AD 1492) Amerindian inhabitants of the region related to one another and others at various geographic scales, with a view to better understanding social interaction and organization within the Windward Islands as well the integration of this region within the macro-region. This research approached the study of intra- and inter-island interaction and social development through an island-by-island study of 640 archaeological sites and their ceramic assemblages. Besides providing insight into settlement sequences, patterns and micro-mobility through time, it also highlighted various configurations of sites spread across islands that were united by shared ceramic (decorative) traits. These configurations were more closely examined by taking recourse to graph-theory. By extending the comparative scope of this research, possible material cultural influences from more distant regions could be suggested. While Windward Island communities developed a localized material cultural identity, they remained open to influences from outside the micro-region. Windward Island communities actively and flexibly realigned themselves with several mainland South American societies in Late Ceramic Age times (AD 700-1500), forging and maintaining significant ties and exchange relationships Show less
Chemotaxis, the process in which cells detect a concentration gradient of a specific substance, interpret that information, and subsequently initiate movement towards the source is an essential... Show moreChemotaxis, the process in which cells detect a concentration gradient of a specific substance, interpret that information, and subsequently initiate movement towards the source is an essential part of many biological phenomena. It___s central to the processes in wound healing, in immune defense and in the formation of a viable embryo. In this thesis I used the well characterized social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum to investigate, in depth, the dynamics that govern the first steps in the detection of a chemical gradient. D. discoideum detects cyclic adenosine mono-phosphate (cAMP) by a special receptor protein, cAMP receptor 1 (cAR1). Inside the cell this receptor activates a G protein which subsequently initiates a complex signaling cascade. Using fluorescence single-molecule microscopy I investigated the movements of both cAR1 and its associated G protein. During chemotaxis both proteins show striking differences in mobility between the leading and trailing edge of the cell. Those differences are presumably key to our understanding of gradient sensing by cells that have been ignored in models so far. Show less
Several sites in the desert between the Nile and the Red Sea, in Egypt and Sudan, as well as in the Nubian Nile Valley have produced the sherds of decorated hand-made cups and bowls, now identified... Show moreSeveral sites in the desert between the Nile and the Red Sea, in Egypt and Sudan, as well as in the Nubian Nile Valley have produced the sherds of decorated hand-made cups and bowls, now identified as Eastern Desert Ware (EDW). Because of their small number and enigmatic origin these sherds have been mostly ignored. For this study, 290 EDW sherds were collected and investigated macroscopically, microscopically and by mass-spectrometry of both the ceramic matrix (ICP/MS) and the preserved organic residues (GC/MS). The results strongly suggest that EDW was made and used by the pastoral nomads living in the desert in the 4th-6th centuries CE. The former identification of these nomads with the Blemmyes of the written sources, however, must now equally strongly be rejected. Show less
The behavior of single G-protein coupled receptor molecules were studied with single-molecule microscopy in the plasmamembrane during Dictyostelium discoideum chemotaxis. The mobility of the... Show moreThe behavior of single G-protein coupled receptor molecules were studied with single-molecule microscopy in the plasmamembrane during Dictyostelium discoideum chemotaxis. The mobility of the receptor was different in the anterior and posterior regions of living cells migrating towards the source of chemoattractant. This difference of mobility can account for an amplification of the extracellular signal, necessary for chemotaxis. It was also found that the receptor molecules are internalized. Show less
