Time to write: convict petitions in the 19th century

Nineteenth-century convicts regularly used their right to petition the state. Their institutionalised lives were spent under repressive and harsh penal systems, designed to inhibit communication, but petitioning provided a channel of expression that must have been sorely absent from the monotony of their life in prison. Convicts commonly used petitions to complain about perceived injustices in their sentencing or to request early release on probation, leaving written records of the different experiences, motivations and objectives of petitioners. These written voices therefore provide the basis for a unique window into convict lives in the 19th century.     

Between crime and colony: interrogating (im)mobilities aboard the convict ship

Recent literature in carceral geography has attended to the importance of mobilities in interrogating the experience and control of spaces of imprisonment, detention and confinement. Scholars have explored the paradoxical nature of incarcerated experience as individuals oscillate between moments of fixity and motion as they are transported to/from carceral environments. This paper draws upon the convict ship – an example yet to gain attention within these emerging discussions – which is both an exemplar of this paradox and a lens through which to complicate understandings of carceral (im)mobilities. The ship is a space of macro-movement from point A to B, whilst simultaneously a site of apparent confinement for those aboard who are unable to move beyond its physical parameters. Yet, we contend that all manner of mobilities permeate the internal space of the ship. Accordingly, we challenge the binary thinking that separates moments of fixity from motion and explore the constituent parts that shape movement. In paying attention to movements in motion on the ship, we argue that studies of carceral mobility must attend to both methods of moving in the space between points A and B; as micro, embodied and intimate (im)mobilities are also played out within large-scale regimes of movement.     

The strange case of the Freudian case history: the role of long case histories in the development of psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud's five long case histories have been the focus of seemingly endless fascination and criticism. This article examines how the long case-history genre developed and its impact on the professionalization of psychoanalysis. It argues that the long case histories, using a distinctive form that highlighted the peculiarities of psychoanalytic theory, served as exemplars in the discipline. In doing so, the article extends John Forrester's work on "thinking in cases" to show the practical implications of that style of reasoning. The article illustrates how the form disappeared once the theoretical basis of the movement was set. The genre never became institutionalized, although the content of the five long case histories did, because of Freud's accepted role as theoretician of psychoanalysis.     

The case of the World Trade Organization

This article explores the relationship between power and rules within the context of international relations, utilizing as a case‐study what is arguably the most powerful international juridical institution in the world today, the World Trade Organization (WTO). The author draws upon a number of his previous works on the subject of the WTO and its predecessor, the GATT, wending through such topics as: the way that political and diplomatic leaders improvized and filled in the gaps of international institutions when the original idea for an International Trade Organization (ITO) failed; the remarkably elaborate development of the particularly deep and rich WTO Dispute Settlement (DS) jurisprudence (over 60,000 pages); and the constant tension between the role of nation‐state power and the power allocated to international institutions, apparently necessitated by the huge impact of ‘globalization’ and interdependency in world affairs (especially economic) today. Various specific issues and cases illustrate these tensions and allocations, including treaty interpretation techniques, the degree of deference towards the members’ government actions, the arguments about the appropriate role of the ‘adjudicators’, and the delicately sensitive approach of the DS system towards clashes of policy necessitating ‘balance’. Throughout, particular emphasis is laid upon the ‘rule oriented’ (‘more legalization’) approach of the WTO DS jurisprudence, both in reflection on the historical and current developments of that juridical system—from ‘power oriented’ to ‘rule oriented’—and also in the important roles regarding tensions between ‘sovereignty’ concepts and international rule needs.     

The Hawaiian case

Ross H. Cordy. A Study of Prehistoric Social Change: The Development of Complex Societies in the Hawaiian Islands. New York: Academic Press, 1981. xii + 274 pp. $29.00     

Flags in the city. The case of Gdynia

Abstract

The article discusses flags in respect of their different forms (kind or type of occurrence) and functions served (role and meaning). The author raised the following research questions about the current use of flags in the city: when, what flags and why they are flown along the city streets? The following thesis was put forward that flags hung by Gdynia City Hall are a reflection of its development policy. The paper is based on data obtained from the City Hall of the Baltic city of Gdynia (Poland) and semi-structured interviews conducted in September 2015 with two clerks responsible for flag display in the city. The distribution of flags along the streets in Gdynia varies in time and in space. The ancient invention which is the flag is currently used in Gdynia in two forms (traditional flags and promotional banners) and it fulfils two functions: signalisation and identification. Flags have become a visual sign of the eventification and festivalisation of urban politics and, at the same time, of the public space of Gdynia.     

The paradox of contemporary linguistic nationalism: the case of Luxembourg

Through a case study of the mobilisation around the Luxembourgish language in the 1970s and 1980s, this article investigates the paradox of contemporary linguistic nationalism, resulting from a hiatus between the continued influence of the classic nation‐state model and the new constraints linked to a changed socio‐historical context. Based on an analysis of actors' discourses, parliamentary debates and legislative documents, the investigation retraces the social, political and economic dynamics as well as the cognitive mechanisms leading to a change in the social perception of the Luxembourgish language. It shows how the contemporary context implies specific constraints and difficulties for mechanisms of the invention of tradition, but that at the same time the traditional nation‐state model, where one nation equates with one state and one language continues to function as a reference. Through the Luxembourgish case is raised the more general question of the relation between linguistic nationalism, modernity and change in a contemporary context.     

Development in the dependent state: The Kenyan case

COLONIALISM AND UNDERDEVELOPMENT IN EAST AFRICA: THE POLITICS OF ECONOMIC CHANGE, 1919–1939. E.A. Brett. Heinemann Educational Books, London, 1973.

RACIAL BARGAINING IN INDEPENDENT KENYA: A STUDY OF MINORITIES AND DECOLONIZATION. Donald Rothchild. Oxford U.P. for Institute of Race Relations, London, 1973.

THE POLITICAL INTEGRATION OF URBAN SQUATTERS. Marc Howard Ross. North Western U.P., Chicago, 1973.

KENYA: THE POLITICS OF PARTICIPATION AND CONTROL. Henry Bienen. Princeton U.P., Princeton, 1974.

PEASANT POLITICS: CONFLICT AND DEVELOPMENT IN MURANGA. Geoff Lamb. Julian Friedmann Publishers, Lewes, Sussex, 1974. Paperback edition 1977.

THE ECONOMICS OF COLONIALISM: BRITAIN AND KENYA 1870–1930. Richard Wolff. Yale U.P., New Haven, 1974.

UNDERDEVELOPMENT IN KENYA: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF NEO‐COLONIALISM. Colin Leys. Heinemann Educational Books, London, 1975.     

The evolution of a colonial space-economy: the case of Fiji

The penetration by western capitalism of the pre-capitalist world laid the foundations for an externally oriented, distorted and dependent form of development. This occurred through the subordination of indigenous societies and the highly selective exploitation of local resources by foreign capital. The means by which this occurred are directly expressed in the historical evolution of an underdeveloped country's space-economy. The case study of Fiji is used as an illustration of this process.     

The changing identity of the Central European city: the case of Katowice

The issue of diverse identities imprinted on the urban landscape as the result of political changes and the struggle for power between different social and ethnic groups is analysed here using the example of Katowice, the capital and largest urban centre in Upper Silesia, Poland. Basing their conclusions on systematic investigation of the most important changes and features in the cityscape in five clearly distinct historical periods, the authors explore the conditions and mechanisms of the creation of the city’s symbolic landscape and its links with urban identity. They argue that Katowice represents a peculiar model of urban identity formation in Central and Eastern Europe that has to date not been researched in any depth, in which each successive historical period represents a rupture with the foregoing values and ideas and an attempt to make a new, lasting imprint on the material outlook of the city. The development of such a model of identity is the result of the complex interplay between the city’s changing geopolitical context and its economic and functional development path.