Small victories

Saudi King Abdullah sacks conservative adviser

[post from 14 May--still relevant!  More to follow...]

So, I've definitely been lax this weekend with regard to blogging.  I've begun to revert to my old ways, which includes staying up late and sleeping in in the morning.  Nevertheless, it is a sign that I'm adjusting to my life here!

I spent the latter part of this week finishing a manuscript that I will present at PRIO on Wednesday.  I am grateful to have gotten a solid critique of it from one of my professors, and as a result it has improved substantially.  I think I may have a decent submission before the summer is over.  To be honest, I am looking forward to getting to work this morning to continue work on it. 

Several noteworthy, unrelated events have occurred these past few days.  For one, the House of Representatives has passed an amendment excluding political science from NSF-funded projects.  Bear in mind that my work here is funded by the NSF... For a concise and articulate response, click here.  The professor with whom I am working while here also had a baby this weekend.  Whatismore, Ben and I planted seeds at the apartment so that we could have something to enjoy watching.  The seeds, which are Icelandic poppies, spouted this weekend!  In all, these are a series of small victories and a minor (hopefully temporary) defeat.  

On Saturday Ben and I slept in and went to a sculpture park called Frogner park.  The weather was chilly but beautiful, and the park was quite nice.  We walked around until 4pm, when I was to meet some coworkers.  I volunteered to run for the Centre in a city-wide relay race, in which an estimated 40,000 people attended.  From the institute there were two teams of 15 people each, one team representing the Centre for the Study of Civil Wars (CSCW), and the other representing the Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO).  I ran 800 meters for my leg.  It was short, but the air is so clear here that I felt as though I had been running a much longer distance.  It was really neat to see so many people in the city gearing up for a physical activity.  Let me tell you, people took this race seriously.  I was perhaps one of the only people not in running pants (I ran in swimming trunks, actually).  

After the race we joined our colleagues for dinner and then attended our first house party.  The house party was thrown by one of my coworkers, at which we spent most of the time on the terrace at the top of their apartment building.  We got a nice 360-degree view of the city, and we stayed out there as we waited for it to get dark, except that it never did.  Saturday night was the first night that I realized that the sun wasn't completely going down.  In truth, we arrived home at 3am and it still wasn't completely dark!

Interesting sights

Mexico TV debate team sorry for skimpy dress 'mistake'

The following are sights along my bus ride from home (Brekkelia) to work (Hausmann's Gate):

The bus winds downhill to Ovre Stabburvei

Cars zoom by, up the hill

A motorcyclist passes dangerously alongside the bus

The newly trimmed trees are putting out leaves

A man in crazy black-and-white pants walks a dog near Godals Vei

A young woman talks to an older woman with her coffee on the stoop of a glass shop

Bicyclists emerge from a nearby park at Badebakken

People wait patiently for a bus on the other side of the street

The KIWI grocery store is open

Construction workers in neon green vests congregate over a bin of rubble

Lots of people get on the at Bjolsen

A runner in running clothes sprints off the bus and down the street

People build scaffolding to scale the exterior of a building above a flower shop

A man enjoys his coffee at a bakery near Arendalsgata

A man with flowers lining the rim of his hat walks a dog at Advokat

Men working at Frukt & Gront set out fresh flowers and fruit for the day

A woman with a miniature pinscher walks a child to school

Another woman is talking to her baby in its carriage

Construction workings are digging a hole near Arengals

The number of people on the bus grows as we approach the city

The Sagene Lunjsbar is bright yellow and happy looking

A girl in a beige coat stomps by on heels on the corner of a church near Sagene

Women at Sagene have scarves on in a variety of ways

A man in a blue jacket sits down beside me on the bus

What looks like community gardens are being dug up near Arkitekt Riverts Plass

A bicyclist passes by close enough to touch outside my window

A women in a burka gets on at Arkitekt Riverts Plass

Two guys are conversing to each other in Norwegian across the bus, facing me

Large rocks jut out at the street

There is a sign at Edvald Righs Gate of a beautiful model with only one hand

A pretty girl who smells nice sits down across me from me; she has glasses on

There is a wall made of cobbled stones which looks quite old, covered in graffiti

We pass a bright blue sign that says 'Spill Her!' (whatever that means)

The conversant guys get off the bus at Telthusbakken

There are lush green trees and hills all along the route

A guy descends down stone stairs from a street below

Bikinioverdel for 49,50 kr, according to three signs near Mollerveien; 

the models in them are unnaturally tan

I get off at Calmeyers Gate near a piano store 

Business as usual

Al-Qaeda underwear bomber 'was undercover agent'

Not too much to report today.  Today was a regular workday.  It was (and still is) kind of rainy and blah today.  I spent the full day working on updating my presentation for next Wednesday.  Upon arriving home this afternoon I stomped around and proclaimed that I was bored.  It's not the best weather to go out in, and museums and shopping areas were closed.  I offered to sit with Ben while he finished his work, but my computer suddenly rejected the wireless, leaving me without internet.  Without internet, I had no option but to pout.  When Ben finished his work, we laid in bed and flipped through a large book on Impressionist art.    (That's Ben's favorite period, according to him.)  I warmed up to the style a little more, as a result of having seen some of the pieces in the book.  We played some cards and I won, so he's cooking me dinner.  There was another book on the shelf in the apartment which contained Shakespeare's complete works.  I had considered finding two-person scenes for us to act out, but then considered that it would be best for us to read the play in full.  Perhaps we'll play dress up and post a video soon.  

Hungry

Ukraine's Yulia Tymoshenko to end hunger strike

Today's been a long day.  Not by any means has it been bad, merely... eh.  I worked 9-5, mainly fixing up the R&R.  After much deliberation, I finally resubmitted the manuscript.  *fingers crossed*  At 12 pm we had a brownbag presentation by Thomas Plümper.  The research question regarded free-riding in military alliances, which really isn't my forte, but I was interested in the research design.  He had a novel approach to studying free-riding.  If you were asked to determine whether a partner country was taking advantage of another country's military expenditures--that is, not putting in the same amount--how would you go about doing so?  Thomas and his colleague focused on the issue of spatial simultaneity, which in this case concerns how a country's military spending patterns are affected by those nearest it (i.e., the alliance partner).  I have my doubts about the research design, but it didn't come across as effectively as I had hoped in the Q&A.  A common feeling is to think as critically as  you can and to come up with a comment to help the presenter, to gather up the courage to speak to a room full of people, only to hear crickets once the question's been asked.  It's a hollow feeling.  Nevertheless, it was a good exercise to think more critically about the research design and an overall interesting presentation.
When it was time, I clocked out and went to grab some groceries.  The thing about grocery stores in Norway is that pretty much no two grocery stores are alike.  I ducked into the first store that I came to (near the closest bus stop), but I found none of the things that I was looking for.  I'm not talking about specific brands like 'Tide' or 'Doritos', but things like 'cereal' or 'spaghetti'.  I found Ben's requested items at the second store.  Each grocery trip has been unique like that.  In some ways there are many more options in terms of the type of food that one can buy, as a result of cultural pluralism.  At the same time, there are not a lot of the conveniences to which I have become accustomed to at home.  The act of gathering together the ingredients to make spaghetti and meatballs seems like quite a task!  To be sure, it probably wouldn't feel that way if I could read Norwegian.  Until I learn how to, we are relegated to vegetables and breads and packages with symbols for instructions.  No worries though, we are not hungry.  We are, however, being forced to eat better.  

Socializing

Socialist Francois Hollande wins French presidency

Sunday Ben and I slept in, then visited the botanical gardens.  Alas, Ben discovered once we arrived at the gardens that he'd left the SIM card in his computer.  As a result, no pictures to show (this time, anyway).  It was, however, a very relaxing afternoon trip.  We came home and napped, no idea why we were so sleepy.

Today I woke up bright and early and headed out to work.  After a week I have kept up with reading the news, meditating, and blogging daily, for which I am a tiny bit proud.  I worked on my R&R for the most part of the day.  At noon we had a brownbag (my first), at which John O'Loughlin from UC Boulder presented on the practical and ethical issues of dealing with sensitive data.  He apparently had first contact with data from WikiLeaks and with Julian Assange, and was navigating issues surrounding the publication of data and replication files for projects using such data.  Though I doubt that I will ever work with sensitive data like that it was an insightful dialogue, especially with the heads in that were in the room.  Difficult questions to ponder are: what do you do if you get access to data that is classified, or secret, or even just kind of scandalous?  What if the data are purposely hidden--by, let's say, a government--but do not identify anyone in particular?  How much would you be willing to endure to publish novel--perhaps critical--findings?  

I have apparently been drafted into running in a relay race in the city on Saturday, for which some of the PRIO-ites have been training.  I agreed to run this afternoon with them, which turned out to be a 10 kilometer bike ride and a 10 kilometer run.  That was definitely not to be expected--I ran along and enjoyed it, but I was left in the dust.  Fortunately, I had a lagging companion with me.  This was my first social event since arriving.  It was interesting running and joking with a respected academic like Håvard Hegre (who is, by the way, a fast runner).  We ran on the Bygdøy peninsula, which is covered in lush forest.  It is also where the king has a summer home and farm.  Gaw-geous!  I plan to rent bikes and take Ben there soon.

  

Public square

Moscow clashes at anti-Putin protests

On our first weekend in Oslo, we spent Saturday touring the national museums, of which there are four.  The National Gallery houses older, more classic works; it was our first stop.  It isn't very large compared to other museums like the MoMA or the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, but its size was perfect to Ben and I.  After a while of staring at artwork, they all start to look the same, whether you appreciate it or not.  Ben and I have very different tastes in visual (fine) art--he prefers impressionist, "pretty" paintings like those by Bonnard, Matisse, and Cezanne.  He enjoys the use of bright, happy colors.  To be sure, I'm not looking for ugly paintings, but I don't really share his tastes.  I enjoy paintings that are more defined and which use more dramatic color and sharper contrasts.  In the past, I have usually expressed disinterest in paintings that depicted realistic landscapes, but I changed my tune when I was introduced to Thomas Fearnley and Johan Christian Dahl.  Some of the landscapes that we saw where amazing!

We spent much of the morning enjoying the gallery.  It was a very nice collection of paintings, including Skrik,  or the Scream, by Edvard Munch, one of Norway's most celebrated artists.

For lunch, we went to the local McDonald's.  It isn't the most sophisticated choice, but ever since we tried a delicious burger at a McDonald's in Medellin, Colombia we decided to compare quality and presentation of across different countries.  In the afternoon, we went to the Museum of Contemporary Art.  I consider myself an appreciator of art, but this museum forced me to draw the line.  Some of the exhibits were so minimalist that they were laughable; others were downright vile.  We came across a panel of mixed-media works, probably 100 in all, that may very well have been painted with blood.  On the first floor I was all about being open to something new, but we pretty much sped through the second floor.  To be sure, there were a few really cool pieces that we found, which made the visit worthwhile.

We also briefly visited the Museums of Architecture and Decorative Arts and Design.  We walked down to the water and enjoyed a beer out in the sunshine, where we discussed our feelings about the museums that we had visited.  The question that we mulled over is what is art?  After some discussion, I think we decided that anything can be art, but that it leads to a different, more complicated question regarding the functionality, intent, and ethics of its creation/display.  In short, the jury's out.  It was a wonderful Saturday.

Strange lands

Agency condemns its own Falklands advert

Early this morning, I sat up in the bed and enjoyed watching out the window.  Birds were playing around the feeders that our neighbor has set up, including a large woodpecker, of which I have always been a fan.  Ben wouldn't look at it. He was still sleeping and missed the view.  It was snowing around the lush green conifer trees outside, which I absorbed from my warm bed.  Being a person used to sleeping in, I have found the change in my sleeping habits to be refreshing.  

That's not all that I like about our visit so far.  So many little aspects of our daily life have changed, it feels as if nothing is quotidian anymore.  I was riding the bus to work yesterday, when it occurred to me that I was thoroughly enjoying the ride.  Analyzing the situation, I realized that what I enjoyed about the ride was passing everyone on the street and seeing what they were doing and who they were with.  There is something so pleasant about waking up in your home and and joining the larger city that is waking up with you.  I have always said that I was a country boy who wouldn't fare well in a city, but that no longer seems to be true.  Those sentiments were based on my experiences as a traveler with no real home to go to.  This is the first time that I've actually tried to live in a city, and I must admit that I like it.  Yesterday morning on the bus, I imagined myself living life as a professor in a cozy city like Oslo, and I think that it is totally doable.

There are also a variety of little things that have improved in the past few days.  I've eaten a large breakfast each day, my meals are a lot healthier, and I'm focusing on maximizing the quality of down time rather than the quantity of it.  Each early morning has started with a reading from Thich Nhat Hanh, for which I have a much more pleasant day.

The following was a passage from yesterday's reading, which stuck with me all day while I worked at PRIO:

"Our knowledge is relative and limited and limited.  An orchid, for example, knows how to produce noble, symmetrical flowers, and a snail knows how to make a beautiful, well-proportioned shell.  Compared with this kind of knowledge, our knowledge not worth boasting about, even if we have a Ph.D" [Hanh 2001: 32].

I have tried to "medidate" each morning, but I am surprised at how lasting the few words contemplated in a few minutes of silence are.  It is humbling to be reminded about the relativity and complementarity of knowledge.  At PRIO, I have spent the past few days acquainting myself with real scholars, editing a manuscript for resubmission to a journal, and preparing a paper for a presentation that I will give at the institute on Monday.  The overwhelming feeling of being a little fish in a big, super-cool, smarty-pants pond is reigned in by the reminder that "knowledge is relative."  I hope that my involvement at the institute better prepares me to make an impact on political science, however small.

The city, the summer, and daily life feels delightfully foreign.  Songbirds have returned to the feeders and the streets below are stirring with the sounds of cars.  

  

Hell fire

Bangladesh teacher 'burns' legs of girl pupils

For the last two days it has been warm and sunny outside.  I worked a full work day both days, and by the time I left work I was too tired to explore around.  My colleagues joked that I should enjoy the nice weather while it lasted--in retrospect, I should have.  It is cold and rainy today.  Ben met me at work this afternoon, having worn only a light jacket.  He had had enough of the cold and asked only for a hot chocolate and warm place to rest.  I, on the other hand, was quite warm and had been very productive, and was much over-caffeinated (PRIO has a really nice coffee machine).
Having lent Ben my coat and wandered around downtown in search of dinner, I am now sitting in front of the wood stove in our apartment.  It is quite relaxing to sit in an empty space, without sound, watching the flames consuming the birch logs.  Its especially pleasant to watch the fire burn through the glass of the stove, at a closeness that one could not enjoy in watching an open fire.  When Ben closes the flue on the stove, the burning flames slow down.  The slowness of the flames resembles an aurora, according to Ben, and when the soot occasionally catches fire above the logs it looks like ball lightning or like plasma.

Reporting in

Burundi bans report on political assassinations

On 01 May we (my partner and I) arrived in Oslo, Norway.  I had been planning this trip for months, but the rush of finishing up the semester prevented me from realizing how quickly our departure was approaching.  Not a day after turning in my final exams, we were on a plane heading north east.  After about 18 hours of traveling, we made it to our new apartment.

View Larger Map

We weren't sure that we'd have a place to live until just a few days before our arrival.  All the same, the place is perfect.  It is about 5 miles away from where I will be working, up in a residential area.  It is a rather short bus ride away.  On Tuesday, we politely declined emails welcoming us to the country--rather, we slept the rest of the day.  That evening we went for a brief stroll to get our bearings, and then cooked light dinner. The apartment is perfectly suitable for the two of us.  The air in this place is clean, efficient, and peaceful.  The owner has left us everything we might need, down to tasteful music and a well-stocked fridge (kjøleskap).

Wednesday I awoke at 6am, unable to sleep.  I had the most peaceful breakfast.  After three days here, I still do not have my bearings.  Nevertheless, I'm happy here!  This seems like a great place to live and work.

Near-democracy

Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi sworn in to parliament

In what is considered one of the most classic books in Comparative Politics, Robert A. Dahl (1971) defined the concept of democracy as an enumerated list of elements that includes the freedom of expression, the right to organize and the right to compete for political office, among others.  In terms of operationalizing democracy, the list is rather long--most simply associate Dahl's notion of democracy with the broader concepts of contestation and participation, into which the list can fairly easily be divided.  In reality, Dahl asserted that democracy is an ideal that does not fully exist in the modern world.  To him, societies which most closely fulfilled the comprehensive list of democratic qualities could only be thought of as 'polyarchies', as near-democracies.  Democracy exists in principle, but it ought not to be attributed to less perfect forms.  

The point is rather trivial that democracy is only an ideal--semantics, really--but it was a point that stuck to me as a graduate student.  Polyarchy (1971) served as a cornerstone for much of the theorizing regarding democracy in the last 30 years.  To different extents scholars have emphasized participation and contestation in their own work, and in so doing aspired to create better and better ways to measure democracy.  All the same, there remains much to be hoped for from the comparative study of governance.  In a philosophical sense, the contrast between polyarchy and democracy is a metaphor for the work that has succeeded Dahl.  In the pursuit of empirical regularities about the nature of democracy and its spread in the world, political scientists have pushed forward to identify and to qualify something that Dahl suggests cannot truly be found.  (Deep.)

It is the simultaneous pursuit of an ideal (which is assumed to make everyone better off) and the challenge of creating more suitable measures for empirical uses that draws me to the study of democracy.  As a first year doctoral student at the Pennsylvania State University, I was rather uncommitted to a particular aspect of politics that interested me.  Shortly thereafter, I took a class in which I was engaged in debates about what democracy is and how we can identify it in the modern world.  Three years later, I am embarking on a promising and happy research agenda that may shed light on how and when democracy emerges.  

In some ways, this blog is for my employers and for my future students.  I hope to use blogging as a resource by which to document my thoughts and my journey through the research process.  This includes both personal and professional development.  As I am a graduate student, I will soon be looking for a job.  To this end, I hope that this blog illustrates my passion for learning and for best practice research.  It is also for my family, whom I am regularly far away from.  To the chagrin of our friends and family we are spending the summer in Oslo, where I am working for the Peace Research Institute.  Hopefully some of the more mundane posts will at least narrate our daily life and connect us together.  They will definitely be missed!  Firstly, however, this blog is for myself.  I keep a lot of thoughts to myself, and yet, I speak way too much.  Through casual writing I hope to become a more focused and articulate as a student and citizen.  I welcome constructive comments and hope to provide useful comments in return!
Though I attribute my interest in the study of democratization to exposure to Dahl and others, I take special comfort in blogging under the name 'Polyarchist' because it reminds me that I am far from my ideal self.  I would like to write beautifully and succinctly every day, to be witty and sociable and not awkward, but it does not happen like that in practice.  So be it.  The spirit in which Dahl coined the term 'polyarchy' extends beyond regimes to represent nearness of something that is good but not perfect.  This blog is intended to be about democratization studies, political science, academic life, current events, and life in general.  The sum total of its content can best be described as being about 'near-democracy'.  There is zen in everything, even textbooks.