Introduction: gendered mobilities and transnational identities

In this short introduction to a themed section on gendered mobilities and transnational identities the articles are introduced and the three key conceptual themes which emerge from the collection are discussed. It is argued first, that gendered migration patterns reconfigure all the social relations within transnational family formations. Second, that chains of care need to be conceptualised in more complex ways recognising multiple forms and circulations of care. Finally, it is suggested that attention needs to be paid to the ways in which institutions intersect with migration and transnational family formations.     

Superheroes in Shanghai: constructing transnational Western men's identities

This article examines the ‘superhero’ phenomenon, in which Western masculinity is constructed differently in East Asia than in Western countries. This produces an imagined, Occidentalist ‘authenticity’ that frames expectations about the performances and identities of Western men in the context. As a result, sojourning Western men in Asia may feel, and be treated, like ‘superheroes’, because their gendered national identities are attributed (super)powers that are often unfamiliar from prior experiences in their home countries. These object (attributed) identities may be different from individuals' subject (appropriated) identities, with resulting identity tensions for the men themselves. This article reports on empirical, qualitative research from China, and examines the lived realities and identity/masculinity constructions of seven young, heterosexual men, from the UK, the US and Canada, working in Shanghai as English language teachers. The study participants experienced perceptions of increased personal and sexual confidence but also identity tensions, concerns that relationships may be transactional and ethical struggles over peer-sanctioned and locally expected behaviours. The study is framed by literature from tourism studies on the commoditization of identities through the staging of out-group notions of ‘authenticity’. A critical approach is taken to the neo-imperialistic power differentials underpinning relationships in the context.     

Reformulating Identities: British Settlers in Early Nineteenth-Century South Africa

This paper examines the formation of a colonial identity among settlers from the British Isles who were relocated to the eastern frontier of the Cape Colony in 1820. It suggests that material aspirations united certain of the settlers in a political programme, and thus began the erosion of imported class (and other) divisions. However, it argues that their establishment as a capitalist colonial class is an insufficient explanation for their construction of a shared and emotive British settler identity. The settlers modified their inherited discourses of class, race, gender and nationality in order to forge solidarity, and the imperative for solidarity derived not so much from their mutual desire for accumulation, but from a corresponding collective insecurity. Not only were settlers afraid of Khoikhoi labour rebellion and Xhosa reprisals for land loss; they also feared abandonment by a seemingly unsympathetic metropole. Their aggressive capitalist endeavour, and collective fear of its destabilizing consequences, were two sides of the same coin, informing the development of a unifying social identity. The paper goes on to consider the mechanisms through which that identity was sustained, including acts of landscape representation, the textual generation of collective memory and the practice of communally binding, quotidian, gendered routines.     

Cultural tourism between local and transnational identities: Jewish heritage in Syracuse,Italy

Abstract

This article focuses on the management of heritage and cultural tourism related to the complex identity of minority groups, where different components tend to produce different visions and practices. It highlights the impacts of globalized transnational networks and influences on political, cultural and religious identities and affiliations over long distances. In fact, diverse views, approaches, perceptions and representations may lead to disagreement and conflicts even within apparently compact ethnic or religious communities. The issues related to dissonant heritage management strategies and the related authorized heritage discourse, in terms of unbalanced power relations and diverging narratives, are considered. The theme of Jewish heritage tourism (J.H.T) is analysed, with a focus on the case of Syracuse, Italy. This historically cosmopolitan and multicultural city specializes in cultural tourism and tends to develop niche products, including J.H.T, in order to strengthen and diversify its international cultural destination status. Different components of the Jewish world, as well as non-Jewish stakeholders, practice different approaches to heritage tourism. Actors, discourses and reasons behind Jewish culture management and promotion will be highlighted and the reactions, perceptions and suggestions by the various stakeholders and groups involved will be portrayed, with the aim of contributing to the discussion about the complexity of niche heritage tourism processes in a multi-ethnic site.     

Relinquishing nuclear weapons: identities,networks and the British bomb

Recent analysis on the prospects for achieving a world free of nuclear weapons has tended to focus on a set of largely realist strategic security considerations. Such considerations will certainly underpin future decisions to relinquish nuclear weapons, but nuclear disarmament processes are likely to involve a more complex mix of actors, issues and interests. The article examines this complexity through a sociological lens using Britain as a case‐study, where relinquishing a nuclear capability has become a realistic option for a variety of strategic, political and economic reasons. The article examines the core ideational and organizational allies of the UK nuclear weapon ‘actor‐network’ by drawing upon social constructivist accounts of the relationship between identity and interest, and historical sociology of technology analysis of Large Technical Systems and the social construction of technology. It divides the UK actor‐network into three areas: the UK policy elite's collective identity that generates a ‘national interest’ in continued deployment of nuclear weapons; defence–industrial actors that support and operationalize these identities; and international nuclear weapons dynamics that reinforce the network. The article concludes by exploring how the interests and identities that constitute and reproduce the ‘actor‐network’ that makes nuclear armament possible might be transformed to make nuclear disarmament possible. The purpose is not to dismiss or supplant the importance of strategic security‐oriented analysis of the challenges of nuclear disarmament but to augment its understanding by dissecting some of the socio‐political complexities of nuclear disarmament processes.     

Soweto nights: making black queer space in post-apartheid South Africa

In this article, I examine black queer nightlife in Soweto and its relationship with the making of black queer space in South Africa. Through an in-depth examination of the microgeographies of a Soweto stokvel party, I reveal the complexities of post-apartheid formations of race, class, gender, and sexuality. Employing the idea of usable space, I highlight quotidian practices of leisure as an important site for understanding cultural creativity within the marginalized spaces occupied by black South African queers. Performance and performativity are central to organizing nightlife spaces and reveal both the possibilities and limits encountered by black queers as they try to construct livable lives.     

Figuring space,marking time: Contested identities in Canada

Abstract

Conflicting concepts of identity have long exercised the Canadian imagination. The central focus of this paper is the role of institutionalised memory in promoting centralist patriotic sentiments. The association between the development of a consciousness and knowledge of the nation is illustrated by the founding of the Canadian Club, the Champlain Society and the Canadian Geographical Society. Attention is also directed to Canada's Historic Sites and Monuments Board, founded in 1919. Throughout its 75‐year history, the HSMB has commemorated events, places and people of historical significance for Canada in some 1600 sites. As may be expected, there have been shifts in emphasis in the national meta‐narratives over time, as is also demonstrated by the recent Charles Richard Bronfman Foundation's ‘Heritage Moments’. Taken together, these initiatives demonstrate a dynamic agenda of reconstituting national memory, national self‐knowledge, and national identity.     

Rhodesia: Report on the Administration of Rhodesia. The British South Africa Company. Impressions of South Africa. James Bryce

EUROPE

A Geography of Europe. Edited by George W. Hoffman. 9×6. Pp. ix+775. 156 figs. London: Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1953. 52s 6d.

Die Landschaften der britischen Inseln. By Johann Sölch. 9 1/2×6 1/2. Erster Band. England und Wales. Pp. xii+1–850. Figs. 1–154. Zweiter Band. Schottland und Irland. Pp. 851–1350. Figs. 155–225. Wien : Springer‐Verlag. Vol. I, 1951. Vol. II, 1952. DM 232, or £19, 17s.

Scottish Industry : An Account of what Scotland makes and where she makes it. Edited by C. A. Oakley. Foreword by The Rt. Hon. Lord Bilsland, M.C., D.L., LL.D. 8 1/2×6. Pp. xvii+332. Plates. Sketch maps. Glasgow: The Scottish Council (Development and Industry). William Collins and Sons Ltd, 1953. 25s.

Orkney Miscellany. 8×6 1/2. Pp. 104. 6 illustrations. Kirkwall: Orkney Record and Antiquarian Society Papers, Vol. 1, 1953. 8s 6d.

The Glasgow Story. By Colm Brogan. 7 3/4×5. Pp. 223. Drawings by Keir. London : Frederick Muller Ltd, 1952. 15s.

Devonshire Studies. By W. G. Hoskins and H. P. R. Finberg. 8 3/4 × 5 6/8. Pp. 470. 8 plates. 11 maps and plans. London : Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1952. 36s.

In Search of Winter Sport. By Monk Gibbon. 8 3/4×5 5/8. Pp. 223. 17 illustrations. End‐paper sketch map. London: Evans Brothers Ltd, 1953. 18s.

Three Rivers of France: Dordogne, Lot, Tarn. By Freda White. 8 1/2×5 1/2. Pp. 232. 49 illustrations. Map. London : Faber and Faber Ltd, 1952. 25s. Reprinted, 1953. 15s.

ASIA

South China in the Sixteenth Century : Being the Narratives of Galeote Pereira ; Fr. Gaspar da Cruz, O.P.; Fr. Martin de Rada, O.E.S.A. (1550–1575). Edited by C. R. Boxer. 8 3/4×5 5/8. Pp. xci+388. 8 figs. 12 plates. [Works issued by the Hakluyt Society, Second Series, No. CVL] London. 1953. 40s.

AFRICA

The Suez Canal in World Affairs. By Hugh J. Schonfield. 8 1/2×5 1/2. Pp. x+174. 9 illustrations. 2 sketch maps. [Constellation Books.] London : Vallentine, Mitchell and Co. Ltd, 1952. 15s.

AMERICA

Highland Settler : A Portrait of the Scottish Gael in Nova Scotia. By Charles W. Dunn. 9×6. Pp. xii+180. Frontispiece. 2 sketch maps. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1953. $4.00. London: Geoffrey Cumberlege. 32s.

POLAR REGIONS

John Roe's Correspondence with the Hudson's Bay Company on Arctic Exploration, 1844–1855. Edited by E. E. Rich, M.A., assisted by A. M. Johnson. Introduction by J. M. Wordie, C.B.E., and R. J. Cyriax. 9 1/2×6 1/2. Pp. cvi+401+xiv. 2 illustrations. Sketch map and 2 maps. London : The Publications of The Hudson's Bay Record Society, XVI, 1953.     

Reproducing,transforming and contesting gender relations and identities through migration and transnational ties

This article contributes to conceptual debates on gender transformations in the context of migration and transnationalism. We do so by discussing developments in gender relations and identities among Polish post-accession migrants in Norway; analysing the intersections of continuities and changes, relationally, as these are produced spatially and temporally. We draw on ethnographic data collected among Polish migrants in the Norwegian cities Oslo and Bergen (2009–2012). Our focus on continuity and change in gender relations and identities, in the context of migration and transnationalism, stems from a realization that migration often leads to assumptions of either radical change, or conservative continuity. Meanwhile through an analytical lens sensitive to relationality and socio-spatial circumstances, we find friction, disagreement, as well as negotiation and resolution, and we argue for the variety of ways in which continuity and change may run parallel, reflective of variations in transnational habitus produced in relation to social class. We pay attention to locations and scales, as salient for how gender relations and identities are reproduced, transformed or contested. The flexible continuum we find reveals diverse strategies of coping with migratory situations, as well as complex interplay between migrants’ agency, existing structures and engendered understandings.     

Gender,age and the politicisation of space during the time of political violence in KwaZulu-Natal,South Africa

This article examines the way in which the modality of the political violence between Inkatha and the United Democratic Front politicised space in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The article demonstrates how place is actively produced through everyday practices. It shows how the spatiality of the violence shifted – from the body to multiple sites of everyday life such as the school and the household and finally to the neighbourhood. Residents were drawn into the violence differentially on the basis of their gender and age, rather than political beliefs and affiliations. Places were politicised in ways that linked their meaning to the political identity of those found in that space. By presenting a spatialised analysis of the political violence, and illustrating how the production of place articulated with the co-production of political identities, this article makes a novel contribution to the existing literature on political violence in KwaZulu-Natal.     

South Africa: Reform,resistance and negotiation

Government reforms in South Africa during the 1980s have neither adequately addressed the problem of black political rights nor significantly improved the material well‐being of blacks. Nonetheless reform should not be judged irrelevant Reform divided the ruling National Party, weakened its support base and exposed new contradictions in apartheid policy. It also opened critical space in which black resistance movements could build essential organisational strength. By rejecting reform as cosmetic in the mid‐1980s black resistance organisations lost strategic advantages in their struggle which they have only now recovered. Ironically, the government's rhetoric of reform may well force it to enter into genuine negotiations.     

The age of the Cambro-Britons: hyphenated British identities in the seventeenth century

ABSTRACT

In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, Welsh writers including the antiquary Humphrey Llwyd, the bard Gruffudd Hiraethog, and the epigrammatist John Owen began referring to themselves as Cambro-Britons. The term was quickly adopted and popularised by English writers, often in ways that show an imperfect grasp of the intentions behind the hyphenated phrase. Whereas the Welsh had hoped that the English and Scots would adopt similar hyphenated identities, English writers tended to interpret “Cambro-Briton” as an intensified and potentially comical expression of Welshness. Though Welsh writers largely ceased to employ the term after the 1620s, the use and misuse of “Cambro-Briton” in English texts continued unabated throughout the century.     

Broadcasting the Rainbow Nation: Media, Democracy, and Nation-Building in South Africa

This paper examines the politics and economics of media reform in South Africa during the 1990s. This process has involved the transformation of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) from a state broadcaster into an independent public service broadcaster, as well as the opening of the airwaves to new entrants in order to extend the diversity of media ownership and programming. The formulation of media policies before and after the elections of 1994 is discussed, with reference to the different interests involved in this process and their differing positions on how broadcasting should be restructured in accordance with new constitutional principles of language equity. The implementation of policies from 1996 to 1998 is critically examined, revealing the contradictory political and economic factors that have shaped the transformation of broadcasting institutions and the performance of independent regulatory bodies.     

Witness Intimidation, Forced Migration and Resettlement: A British Case Study

Situated within the context of geographical research on forced migration, this paper focuses on the experiences of prosecution witnesses who have had to flee their homes because of life-threatening intimidation. Drawing on in-depth interviews with witnesses, it examines the nature of the threat they were under, their decision to leave home, their life in temporary accommodation and their experiences of permanent resettlement away from the danger area. The paper highlights the impact of intimidation and forced migration on witnesses' personal geographies and, in particular, their sense of ontological security and self-identity.