Society News

Abstract

The railway navvy is an elusive and rather obscure figure for the family and community historian. He is traditionally regarded as a single, hard-working, hard-drinking, hard-fighting Irishman who was a perpetual outsider, isolated from the communities in his working neighbourhood. This article examines these stereotypes through a study of the navvy community engaged in building the Dore and Chinley railway line, linking Sheffield and Manchester, between 1888 and 1894. In addition to reviewing the composition of the navvy workforce, the relationship between the navvies and the resident communities is also examined. The analysis rests primarily on data from the 1891 census but also uses evidence from several other sources, including newspaper reports, parish registers, school records and local authority records.     

Children’s agency in accessing for spaces of play in an urban high-rise community in Malaysia

ABSTRACT

This research explores children’s agency in negotiating for play spaces in Malaysia within the context of an urban high-rise community. Fieldwork was conducted with 31 children between the ages of four to 12 years old. A qualitative, child-centered approach to data collection was employed using participatory research methods. The study reveals how children gain access to play spaces and details their innovative strategies in maximizing play opportunities in a community with limited infrastructural and social support. It highlights how children claim the use of communal spaces within the housing compound, reinvent designated play spaces, resist adult rules around restricted spaces and embrace elements of global culture for meaningful play opportunities. The paper argues that children exercise agency in accessing play spaces, and by so doing, extend and expand their lived geographies which are not just spatial, temporal and social but also invented and imagined.     

The Evolving Relationship between the Côa Valley Archaeological Park and the Local Community: an Account of the First Decade

Abstract

The Côa Valley Archaeological Park (PAVC) reaches its 13th birthday in August 2009. Although the relationship between the Park and the local community has not always been unproblematic, the last few years have witnessed a major shift in the situation. While some misunderstandings still exist, recent efforts made by the PAVC, specifically enhancing education services involving local schools in heritage management and conservation, and in organizing activities aimed at the local population, have helped develop ties with the community.     

Working with the Community: Improving the learning experience for large classes

The need for students to develop skills that are of use in the wider labour market, as well as those specifically related to their degree subjects, has been widely accepted for a considerable period of time. It has also been noted that unless these skills are practised and are contextualised they tend neither to be learned, except at the most superficial level, nor transferred to other situations where their use would be appropriate. This paper reports the use of projects extending over a number of sessions, involving working with local community groups, carried out within a discrete module specifically designed to facilitate the learning and practice of both geographical and transferable skills. The problems of providing an integrated approach to the learning of skills for a large group of students, with limited resources and in the context of timetable restrictions imposed by a two-subject degree structure, are addressed. The degree of learning perceived by the students is evaluated and suggestions are made for further development of this approach.     

Outsourcing local democracy? Evidence for and implications of the commercialisation of community engagement in Australian local government

ABSTRACT

Participatory governance practices are enjoying popularity, not least in local government. This is driven by legislation that requires councils to undertake some of these processes; also by communities and practitioners – parties that derive income from participatory governance. An industry is emerging: one characterised by demand and supply, with frameworks, strategies and processes, training and conferences. This industry warrants investigation so that its impacts upon local democracy can be understood. Following a theorisation of local democracy and community engagement, the paper describes the community engagement industry, presenting evidence about council activities, providers and professional associations to establish that the commercialisation of engagement is a significant phenomenon in Australian local government. Possible risks to local governance and local democracy are explored.     

Arena gets the growth syndrome

Abstract

Geographical educators can make useful contributions to the process of community development by helping local communities to achieve greater understanding of their environments. One way to do this is via the concept of regional synthesis, developed by, and shared with, the local residents of a community through the medium of a course which focuses on their local regional geography. A localised geography course was offered in 1977 to out ‐of‐school adults in the Kohala area of the island of Hawaii. The specific mechanics of the course are described here, and short‐term outcomes are evaluated. The potential of this form of ‘applied geography’ is briefly discussed.     

Rural-to-urban migration and adolescent delinquent behaviors: evidence from Hunan and Guangdong in China

ABSTRACT

Analyzing data of a merged sample of two Chinese student surveys conducted in two rural counties of Hunan province and in the capital city of Guangdong province, this paper examines the impact of parental migration on rural children’s involvement in delinquent behaviors. We compare delinquency of non-migrant and left-behind children in the countryside, rural-to-urban migrant children, and urban local children. Both rural children left behind by one migrant parent and those left behind by both migrant parents are similar to rural children without parental migration in terms of delinquent involvement. The situation of rural-to-urban migrant children is noticeably worse, as they are more likely to engage in delinquent behaviors than rural children without parental migration. Nevertheless, rural-to-urban migrant children are not more prone to delinquency compared to their urban local peers. We also found an acculturation impact in the study because the odds of engaging in delinquent behaviors first increases and then decreases for rural-to-urban migrant children when they stay longer and learn some local language in the hosting city.     

Digging for the Dead: Archaeological Practice as Mortuary Commemoration

Abstract

Archaeologists have yet to fully appreciate the complex interactions between archaeological practice and contemporary responses towards death and commemoration in the UK. The paper reflects upon the experience of working with the local community during archaeological fieldwork in and around an English country churchyard at Stokenham in the South Hams district of Devon in southwest England during 2005 and 2006. Using this case study, it is argued that the current theories and parameters of both mortuary archaeology and public archaeology fail to adequately engage with the diverse community perceptions and concerns over mortality and commemoration. At Stokenham, the archaeological research and student-training programme engaged local people in the discovery of their past but (more importantly for the local community) also helped to secure an acceptable commemorative future. It is argued that this provides a case study of how archaeological practice can interact with community attitudes to death and memory.     

The Parish Community Through the Vicarage Window: Nineteenth-Century Clergy Visitation Returns

Abstract

This article uses the visitation returns of the clergy to Archbishop Thomson at his primary visitation of the diocese of York in 1865 in order to look at the relationships which defined the parish community as seen, idealised and criticised by the clergymen of this mainly rural diocese. Their collective view highlights key elements which helped make or break the community with the parish church at its centre: the support given by local landowners; the central importance of the school; and the relationship with the farmers of the parish and impact of farming practices on church attendance. Though the ideal parish community rarely existed it inspired conscientious clergymen to work for its creation in sometimes difficult circumstances. The study also illustrates the value of visitation returns for the local historian and gives pause for thought as the closure of village schools and churches to-day undermines the communities our forebears strove to create.     

Community,state and power-relations in community-based tourism on Lekhubu Island,Botswana

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the results of a study investigating power relations between the local community and the state in the rural tourism development process in Botswana. The study was carried out in Mmatshumu and Letlhakane villages of the Boteti sub-district in Botswana. These villages act as the administrative centres of a community-based culture and heritage tourism project at Lekhubu Island. The Island is, itself, located about 45 kilometres to the north east of these villages. A qualitative research approach, utilising seven focus group discussions with members of the community and 17 individual interviews with key informants was adopted. To understand the power relations between the state (through the TAC) and the local community, the study focused on; the extent to which members of the local community feel they control tourism development process in Lekhubu Island; perceived level of power yielded by the state in the tourism development process at Lekhubu Island as well as; the implications of power differentials between the state and community for tourism development at Lekhubu Island. The results show that, contrary to the popular narrative about devolution of power in community-based tourism, the state remains a very powerful player in the overall decision-making process. Furthermore, the formation of local management structures (i.e. Trust) appears to simply create new power nodes which in turn continues the same legacy of community disempowerment.     

Communities,families and migration: some evidence from Cornwall

Abstract

Taking its cue from Pooley and Turnbull's (1998) claim that there is no evidence of any difference in the propensity to migrate by region or settlement size, this article investigates the appropriate scale for migration research. It presents some preliminary findings from a micro-level study of three occupationally contrasting communities in Cornwall in the second half of the 19th century. Reconstructing the migration histories of a cohort of children from the 1851 census enumerators' books and making use of local and online census and civil registration index databases, the study identifies some clear differences in migration patterns and propensity at the community level. Moving from patterns to processes it argues that labour markets and occupational structures remain the most important explanatory variables structuring migration, but that these were mediated at the individual level by the influence of the family which played a key role in facilitating or deterring movement.     

‘Like it,don’t like it,you have to like it’: children’s emotional responses to the absence of transnational migrant parents in Lombok,Indonesia

ABSTRACT

This article explores the experiences and emotions of children in rural East Lombok, Indonesia, who stay behind with relatives or neighbours while their parents leave the country for work. The article contributes to recent scholarship of children’s experiences of transnational migration in Southeast Asia by drawing out the complex emotions of children who stay behind. Based on research conducted in four ‘sending’ villages, the article describes children’s lived experiences of their parent’s transnational migration, and their intense feelings that whether they ‘like it or don’t like it’, they have no choice but to acquiesce to their parents’ long, often indeterminate absences. The research suggests that stay-behind children are entangled in community anxieties pervading the emotional economy of transnational migration, including the embodied emotion of shame (malu) which shapes children’s responses to parental absence. By focusing on children’s own views and experiences, we contribute to growing debates about the implications of migration for children’s rights and well-being in Southeast Asia.     

Community Participation and the Enhancement of the Roman Thermae of St Thomas,Mesolongi

Abstract

This paper examines the process of enhancing an archaeological site and rendering it accessible to the wider public within a very tight time schedule, and will contemplate the role of the local community in this process. Focusing on the case study of the Roman Thermae of St Thomas (Agios Thomas) near Mesolongi, Western Greece, the various challenges and problems encountered during the excavation, partial restoration, and enhancement of the site (funded by the INTERREG II cross-border program of the 2nd Community Support Framework) will be addressed. Issues of community participation will be highlighted through the crucial involvement of the local people in the project and with a reflective outlook on the way heritage management is operating in Greece.     

Burning Libraries: A Community Response

ABSTRACT

The first decade of the twenty-first century has seen a growing recognition that widespread impacts of climate change (erosion, sea level rise, wildfires, warming soil temperatures) are rapidly destroying archaeological sites and permanently wiping out millennia of cultural heritage and important scientific data on a global scale. This paper provides a brief overview of the efforts of the international archaeological community and its allies to organise a broad and coordinated response to this widespread and urgent threat to our basic record by mobilising at the local, national and international level. The work of the archaeological professional societies has supplemented a growing host of initiatives on multiple scales by national and local governmental agencies, regional research teams, local and Indigenous heritage groups and the international global change scientific community. This paper provides some reflections on the Society for American Archaeology’s Climate Change Strategies and the Archaeological Record team effort from 2015 to 2018, some links to more contacts and resources and some suggestions for future directions.     

Community Archaeology from Below: a Response to Tully

Abstract

The Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project, set up in 1996 as an experiment in 'democratic archaeology', was shaken by a major internal crisis between November 2007 and July 2008. An attempt by a small group of local people to establish top-down control over the project was defeated by a political mobilisation of the project's mass base of volunteer archaeologists and community activists. This article, by a leading protagonist, analyses the crisis and comes to some radical conclusions about the nature of community archaeology, democratic organisation, and the way in which political power is sometimes contested.     

新冠肺炎疫情下社区活动的地方秩序变化：北京双井案例

新冠肺炎疫情对居民日常活动与社区治理带来巨大挑战。本文从新时间地理学企划和活动的地方秩序概念出发,基于北京双井街道社区工作者在疫情不同时期的活动日志和深度访谈以及社区报纸《今日双井》等多源数据,分析社工工作活动的时空特征变化,社区地方秩序的变化及其对居民日常活动的影响。研究发现,疫情不同阶段社区组织企划明显调整,社工工作时间延长且规律性被打破,工作地点由室内转向室外,工作活动更加多元化、破碎化;社工、居民、物业、周边商铺等社区生活圈中多元主体互动加强。本研究对后疫情时代社区生活圈服务与治理优化提升有重要意义,也丰富了新时间地理学对社区生活圈中个体与组织互动、多行为主体互动过程的解读。     

The Effects of Foreign Expansion on Local Growth: The Case of Macao

Abstract

This paper develops a simple model to illustrate the scenario of unsustainable development in a foreign-dominated casino city. We argue that instead of allowing the uncontrolled expansion of foreign casinos, the host community should protect and promote local gambling businesses for the sake of promoting sustainable development. Macao is used as a case study.     

‘ALL HIS WAYS ARE THOSE OF AN IDIOT’: THE ADMISSION,TREATMENT OF AND SOCIAL REACTION TO TWO ‘IDIOT’ CHILDREN OF THE NORTHAMPTON PAUPER LUNATIC ASYLUM, 1877–1883

Abstract

This article attempts to provide a case study of the patient case notes of two boys admitted to the Northampton Lunatic Asylum in the late 1870s. This case study is intended to provide a flavour of the asylum experience for two boys; John Wenborn aged 6 and Charles Luddington, aged 7, both deemed idiots and both removed to the county asylum. Although, the focus on two individuals provides a narrow case study their experiences will provide a window through which to analyse much broader themes such as, the changing social relationships taking place in Victorian Northamptonshire and the impact of the family in securing admission to a pauper lunatic asylum. This analysis will be set against a backdrop of the discussion of the practical uses of the asylum in the late nineteenth century and perceptions of the asylum within the community. This article will examine the mechanisms used to deal with children deemed unfit for ‘normal’ society, the experience and treatment of the children while residents of the asylum and the social response towards insane children within the wider community.     

The Greek-Albanian Archaeological Project on Maligrad: Shaping the Cultural Heritage in the Tri-National Zone of the Great Prespa Lake

Abstract

This paper aims to analyse the collaboration of the Greek-Albanian Archaeological Expedition with the local community of the tri-national district (FYROM-Greece-Albania) of the Great Prespa Lake, in South-eastern Albania, conducted by the Institute for the Transbalkanic Cultural Cooperation (Greece) and the Institute of Archaeology of Tirana (Albania). It is argued that local cultural heritage, including the heritage of the archaeological past, can play a significant reconciliatory role in an extremely delicate national and environmental landscape throughout the work of all the bipolar participants: locals and ‘foreign experts’.