This paper proposes to understand diplomacy as a form of impression management. Drawing on Erving Goffman’s dramaturgy, I show how diplomats seek to repair sudden cracks in the fragile international ... more
This paper proposes to understand diplomacy as a form of impression management. Drawing on Erving Goffman’s dramaturgy, I show how diplomats seek to repair sudden cracks in the fragile international order. I analyse Greenland’s and the Faroes’ puzzling ability to continue controversial seal and whale hunting despite massive international regulation and criticism. In diplomatic negotiations, the two former Danish colonies use post-colonial embarrassment and irony to push Denmark into negotiating an exemption to the EU’s ban on seal products in 2009 and defend pilot whale hunting in the Faroes. Analysing diplomacy as impression management implies, first, that diplomacy cannot be seen as a one-to-one reflection of the relative capabilities or identities of the involved states. Rather, diplomacy should be understood as a social world of its own, abiding to its own rules, norms and codes of conduct. Its inhabitants may represent national interests but they also defend particular views of cosmos and they are saving face. Second, a focus on face- work and social order may help explain both the “conformist” bias of diplomacy and the way it may enable contestation of hierarchies.
This paper takes the discussion on the concept of Hanseatic material culture from the Baltic and moves it west towards the North Atlantic islands and Norway, focusing on the contact zones between Hanse traders and societies at the fringes... more
This paper takes the discussion on the concept of Hanseatic material culture from the Baltic and moves it west towards the North Atlantic islands and Norway, focusing on the contact zones between Hanse traders and societies at the fringes of northern Europe. The peoples of this area conducted considerable exchange with the Germans during the 14th through the 17th centuries, a process which could have led to signifi cant impacts on the native cultures. This study describes artifacts produced in northern Germany and imported to the north as a medium transporting culture, and points out the many complex problems in tracing artifact distribution in northern Europe that are caused by multilateral and illegal trade, piracy, and the involvement of third parties. With the help of archaeological methods, the second part of the paper attempts to address some of those issues by suggesting a classifi cation of Hanseatic artifacts.
Archaeology vol. 10,2 belongs to the publishers Oxbow Books and is their copyright. As author you are licenced to make up to 50 offprints from it, but beyond that we ask you not to publish it on the World Wide Web or in any other form... more
Archaeology vol. 10,2 belongs to the publishers Oxbow Books and is their copyright. As author you are licenced to make up to 50 offprints from it, but beyond that we ask you not to publish it on the World Wide Web or in any other form without prior permission.
Archaeology vol. 10,2 belongs to the publishers Oxbow Books and is their copyright. As author you are licenced to make up to 50 offprints from it, but beyond that we ask you not to publish it on the World Wide Web or in any other form... more
Archaeology vol. 10,2 belongs to the publishers Oxbow Books and is their copyright. As author you are licenced to make up to 50 offprints from it, but beyond that we ask you not to publish it on the World Wide Web or in any other form without prior permission.
