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Contents and Introduction
Journal of the British Academy, Volume 12 Issue 3, Contents and Editors’ Introduction
Fiona Williams*†
,
J.F.Williams@leeds.ac.uk
Elizabeth Edwards‡
, Andrew Hadfield§
Abstract
The Editors introduce the third issue of the Journal of the British Academy in its new format, continuing the dynamic and wide-ranging character of the relaunched Journal. This Introduction includes an overview of the content of the issue and its synergies.
Keywords
social scienceshumanitiesartsinterdisciplinaryinnovativeinquiryContents
RESEARCH ARTICLE
David Reynolds
COMMENTARY
Ievgeniia Kopytsia
THEMATIC COLLECTION
The arts and humanities: rethinking value for today - views from Fellows of the British Academy
Edited by Isobel Armstrong
INTRODUCTION
Isobel Armstrong
COMMENTARY
Simon Shepherd
COMMENTARY
Peter Gatrell
COMMENTARY
Dawn Chatty
COMMENTARY
‘The UNIVERSITY will be for the people’: arts, humanities and the founding of the civic universities
Sally Shuttleworth
COMMENTARY
Greg Currie
COMMENTARY
Julian Johnson
COMMENTARY
Georgina Born
COMMENTARY
James A. Secord
COMMENTARY
Mary Margaret McCabe
COMMENTARY
Isobel Armstrong
THEMATIC COLLECTION
African ecologies: the value and politics of indigenous knowledges
Edited by Adriaan van Klinken, Simon Manda, Damaris Parsitau, and Abel Ugba
INTRODUCTION
Adriaan van Klinken, Simon Manda, Damaris Parsitau, and Abel Ugba
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Relational landscapes: environmental discourse and identity of the Sengwer ethnic community in Kenya
King’asia Mamati
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Fancy Cheronoh
THEMATIC ARTICLE
Simon Manda, Chrispin Matenga, Anna Mdee, Ruth Smith, and Ella Nkiaka
PERSONAL REFLECTION
Richard Hudson
PERSONAL REFLECTION
Susan Michie
Introduction
Welcome to the third issue of the Journal of the British Academy, which was relaunched earlier in 2024. Our aim remains the same in this issue: to showcase the very best of the research generated from the British Academy’s Fellowship, research programmes, activities, and events. The articles here demonstrate the British Academy’s scope for international and interdisciplinary research, its support for early career researchers, its commitment to critical reflection on current matters of social and political urgency, and its determination to explain and defend the role of the humanities and social sciences in an unsettled environment for higher education.
The issue opens with FBA David Reynolds’ research essay on ‘The Meaning of Brexit and the future of the Union.’ Based on the British Academy’s Elie Kedourie Memorial Lecture which he gave in Belfast in November 2023, Reynolds explores the failure of the government to ‘take seriously’ Brexit and the implications and ramifications of this for both policy (or lack of policy) and real politik. Analysed with nuance and energy, Reynolds describes this with the memorable phrase ‘a slogan in search of a strategy’. He argues that failure to engage with what Brexit meant in terms of policy, economics, and governance will have lasting effects on the Union and concepts and practices of devolution, as the twists and turns of strategy to try to encompass the enormity. In ways that perhaps relate to Paul Bew’s argument about the British not understanding Ireland which appeared in JBA 12/1-2, Reynolds explores in particular the complex and tortured attempts to balance the demands of Northern Ireland which had been largely marginalised in the concept of ‘the Union’ as it played out during the Brexit process. He brings his argument about the relationship between slogan and strategy up to date, relating the shadow of Brexit to the 2024 July General Election and to another pressing issue, that of ‘illegal immigration’.
The ‘commentary’ section of the Journal features ‘The Russian War against Ukraine: a case study in climate, conflict, and green recovery.’ The author, Ievgenia Kopytsia, is a law scholar from Ukraine supported by the Researchers at Risk Fellowships Programme, a collaboration between the British Academy, Cara (the Council for At-Risk Academics), the Royal Society, and key disciplinary academies. Her innovative article explores environmental and ecological devastation—an under-researched dimension of military conflict (in this case Russia’s war against Ukraine). Within the context of the failure to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, she argues that these hidden environmental costs associated with escalating international conflicts add a new urgency to climate justice. Recognising this concern offers the potential to frame post-war reconstruction as ‘an unprecedented opportunity for comprehensive decarbonisation and ecological recovery’ in which Ukraine becomes ‘a front-runner in the global energy transition.’
This issue’s first Thematic Collection is an important and timely series of short articles and interventions from a series of sessions organised by Isobel Armstrong FBA (with help from Helen Small FBA) during the Academy’s Fellows Engagement weeks (2022 and 2023). Originally entitled ‘The Civic Value of the Arts and Humanities’, these have been written and edited to form a collection, ‘The Arts and Humanities: Rethinking Value for Today—Views from Fellows of the British Academy’. The contributors, all distinguished FBAs from a variety of fields (Anthropology, English, History, History of Science, Music, Philosophy, and Theatre Studies), set out to explain the value of the arts and humanities from different perspectives and in very different ways. From Simon Shepherd’s witty mini drama on the nature of public and democratic drama, inspired by the widespread practice of clapping NHS workers during the recent pandemic, to Peter Gatrell’s learned and impassioned explanation of the significance of the history of refugees in Europe since the middle of the nineteenth century; from Sally Shuttleworth’s micro-history of Sheffield to explain the civic importance of the university in its local context to Georgina Born’s argument for the value of music beyond the frequently articulated cliches; from M.M. McCabe’s reflections on the value of prison education to Greg Currie’s plea for empathy in reading, the contributions form a manifesto in miniature for the significance of the arts and humanities, one that seeks to challenge and re-energise more familiar defences. The collection also includes James Secord’s powerful reflection on the relationship between the history of science and the terrible histories of colonialism and imperialism; Juliana Johnson’s balanced weighing up of the advantages and disadvantages of studying an ‘ology’, a suffix so frequently derided in the popular press; Dawn Chatty’s dive into late medieval Islamic history to think about the nature of community and solidarity; and Isobel Armstrong’s thoughtful case for the value of the work of John Dewey, now a rather neglected figure. The collection is not designed to be taken as a definitive statement, but to stimulate further debate and we hope to publish some similar discussions before too long.
The next Thematic Collection is the second to emerge from the British Academy-funded International Writing Workshop for African early career researchers held in Nairobi in 2023. There are synergies with the first Thematic Collection on arts and humanities in that it addresses the complexities of what humans do, and why it matters, but from African perspectives. The first collection ‘African Ecologies: Literary, Cultural, and Religious Perspectives’ was published in JBA 12/1-2. The focus of this second exciting collection is ‘African Ecologies: The Value and Politics of Indigenous Knowledges’ edited by Adriaan van Klinken, Simon Manda, Damaris Parsitau, and Abel Ugba. They argue that, against a long history of colonialist-capitalist environmental damage and the marginalisation of indigenous knowledge, there has been growing recognition from institutional climate change advocates that such knowledge has the capacity to mitigate the effects of climate change and to offer a new set of ethics about humans’ relationship with nature. This is especially important where communities are directly and disastrously affected by climate change. The first two articles in the collection provide rich, in-depth ethnographic studies of these aspects of indigenous knowledge.
King’asia Mamati’s article, ‘Relational landscapes: environmental discourse and identity of the Sengwer ethnic community in Kenya’, contributes an account of the eco-spiritual knowledge—‘landscape narratives’—among the Sengwer people in north-western Kenya. This involves sustainable living in which natural plants and animals are treated as kin, protected from harm and exploitation. However, such a way of life and ethical perspectives have been overturned by government pressures to move the peoples from their land and into agribusiness. In the following article, Fancy Cheronoh combines autobiography and oral history in ‘Revisiting African indigenous eco-spirituality and eco-solidarity: an autobiographical case of totemism among the Kipsigis’. Here, she analyses the role of totemism and taboo in upholding a harmonious co-existence between humans, other species, and spirits. She considers how this knowledge can be passed on to younger generations less familiar with oral tradition before it is lost. The concluding article, ‘Challenges for expanding inventories of climate possibility through indigenous and local knowledges in rural Zambia’ by Simon Manda and colleagues, offers different evidence. Drawing on empirical research of twenty donor-funded Community-Driven Climate Adaptation Projects, it critically analyses the different processes through which, despite intentions to recognise local and indigenous knowledges, they nevertheless become marginalised. The authors recommend ways to create much more meaningful engagement with local communities.
The issue ends with two articles providing Personal Reflections on issues of contemporary significance. In the first, Richard Hudson FBA seeks to build on the work of the Academy in working out how best to support the study of modern languages in schools and universities. For Hudson, the issue is trying to encourage more boys and young men to learn languages so that they do not become the preserve of young women. The trick will be to keep—and build on—the number of women studying French, Italian, Spanish, German, and other languages, and increase the number of men. Richard Hudson’s suggestion is that languages should be taught more like sciences, with students understanding that there are definite answers to questions, which will encourage students who find the literary-based assumptions of language learning all too alien. He also wonders whether there should be more competitions, like the United Kingdom Language Olympiad that he has helped to develop in recent years.
The second Personal Reflection, ‘Reflections on UK science-policy relationships in the light of Covid-19’ by Susan Michie FBA, contributes fascinating documentation and analysis of her experience of participation in the Science Advisory Group on Emergencies (SAGE) and its behavioural sub-group. The author uses this to discuss what it is about the science-policy relationship that meant the UK performed badly in managing the acute phase of the Covid-19 pandemic in spite of having access to high-quality scientific evidence and advice. At one level, Michie reveals what went on in processes that many of us watched or wrote about, often horrified, from a distance. However, Michie’s account is not an exposé; it is a hard-considered attempt to raise and begin to answer important questions such as how scientific evidence is ‘translated’ to policymakers or whether scientists have a responsibility to challenge politicians when their statements run counter to prevailing evidence.
As we proceed developing this new style Journal, we are in continual discussion about creating new categories of contribution and tightening up the guidance for the existing categories, and we encourage suggestions from those connected to the British Academy through Fellowship, research funding, or publication. We are grateful for the support our Editorial Board and our incredibly helpful peer reviewers whose thoughtful comments improve the quality of the articles. As ever, we are indebted to the Publishing Department of the British Academy for their contribution to these discussions and the smooth running of the production schedule.
Cite
DOI: 10.5871/jba/012.a43
Published on: 18 September 2024
Volume: 12
Issue: Issue 3
Article view count: 325
Article download count: 8
Copyright statement
© The author(s) 2024. This is an open access article licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International LicenseCite this article
Williams, F., Edwards, E. & Hadfield, A. (2024), ‘Journal of the British Academy, Volume 12 Issue 3, Contents and Editors’ Introduction’, Journal of the British Academy, 12(3): a43 https://doi.org/10.5871/jba/012.a43Crossref
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Received
October 2022
Accepted
May 2023
Published
July 2023
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