British Lobbying in Newspaper and Parliamentary Discourse, 1800–1950

Lobbying is a significant component of the modern politics industry in Britain, but we know relatively little about its historical origins and evolution. This article draws on parliamentary debates and three databases which together account for 51 newspaper titles, in order to explore how lobbying was discussed in parliament and the media between 1800 and 1950, and to gauge the growing professionalisation of lobbying. Perceptions of lobbying became somewhat less negative over the period; there are relatively few reports or allegations of corruption associated with lobbying; and lobbying by the railway industry seems to have been less substantial, while public sector lobbying was more significant, than is commonly supposed. Direct advocacy with policymakers is overwhelmingly the dominant tactic used by lobbyists of the period, with few reports of coalitions or grass‐roots campaigns. Particular concerns were expressed about the influence of lobbying around private bills. While lobbying back‐bench MPs and parliamentary committees (rather than ministers and civil servants) accounted for over 80% of the activity revealed across the whole period, there are signs by the middle of the 20th century that the focus of lobbyists is beginning to turn away from Westminster and towards Whitehall. The article paints a detailed view of the scale, scope, and significance of lobbying as it was developing into a national and systematic industry.     

Modesty and Excellence: Gender and Sports Culture in Dutch Catholic Schooling, 1900–40

This article focuses on the construction of gendered identities in Dutch schools run by religious orders during the process of Catholic emancipation. It discusses the fragility of identity, the simultaneity of tradition and modernity, and the role that gender plays in all these interactions. Two schools in the city of Nijmegen, the Netherlands, are compared during the first half of the twentieth century: the Jesuit institution for boys, Canisius College, and the Ursuline college for girls next door, Mater Dei. At both, sport played an important role in the transmission of notions of Catholicism and gender.     

Visual culture in Brazil's First Republic (1889–1930): allegories and elite discourse

ABSTRACT. The research on which the present work is based analyses the ornamentation of the façades of major Brazilian public buildings and investigates how that representation contributed to the construction of a visual national identity during Brazil's First Republic (1889–1930). Two government buildings are discussed: Pedro Ernesto Palace, inaugurated in 1923 to house the municipal chamber of Rio de Janeiro, and Tiradentes Palace, erected in the years 1922–26 to house Brazil's Parliament. The article focuses on the allegorical figures ornamenting these two buildings in order to explore contradictory aspects of the discourse they convey. It will be argued that visual culture, more precisely architecture and architectural sculpture, served the elites of this period as a powerful tool for projecting their values and for preventing contradictions within Brazilian society from emerging in visual terms.     

(Ad)dressing Pregnant Bodies in New Zealand: Clothing,fashion, subjectivities and spatialities

The article examines the ways in which pregnant women in the West use clothing as a means of constructing a range of complex and seemingly contradictory gendered subjectivities in public spaces. The article draws on interview data collected from 19 first-time pregnant women in Hamilton, New Zealand. These women were asked about maternity wear, body image, fashion, activities they had continued, reduced or stopped during pregnancy, and the places/spaces they occupied during pregnancy. The article focuses on four different ‘looks’ and subjectivities that pregnant women in this research tried on: the thrifty, self-sacrificing mother to be; the sexy, proud pregnant woman; the growing woman who fears her body will be read as fat; and the pregnant professional. For first time pregnant women making the transition to motherhood clothing the body can be a complex act. What women wear during pregnancy speaks volumes about their subjectivities—what they reveal, what they conceal, what images they create, for whom and where.

Este artículo examina las maneras en que mujeres embarazadas en el Oriente utilizan ropas como medio de construir una gama de complejo y evidentemente contradictorio subjetividades de género en espacios públicos. Este artículo emplea información se dedujo de 19 entrevistas de mujeres se embarazan por primera vez en la ciudad de Hamilton, Nueva Zelanda. Se preguntaron estas mujeres sobre ropas maternidades; sus imágenes de cuerpos; moda; las actividades normales ellas han continuado, reducido o detenido; y los lugares/espacios ellas ocuparon durante sus embarazos. Este artículo enfoca las 4 ‘apariencias’ diferentes y los subjetividades que las mujeres embarazadas en esta investigación se han probado: la económica, abnegada, futura madre; la sexy, orgullosa mujer embarazada; la mujer engordada que tiene miedo de que su cuerpo se interpretaría como gordo; y la profesional embarazada. Para las mujeres embarazadas por primera vez y que hacen la transición a la ropa de maternidad, el cuerpo pueda ser un acto complejo. Lo que llevan las mujeres durante sus embarazos habla fuerte de sus subjetividades—lo que revelan, lo que ocultan, cuales imágenes crean, para quien y por donde.