Sign Geography

Signs are significant elements of cultural landscapes throughout the world. Through their form and content, signs reveal a variety of information about places ranging from locational and physical geographic data through social, economic and political characteristics. Signs, which tell of past events, current conditions and future expectations, are landscape notes on the geography of change. Signs are frequently evidence of cultural diffusion and convergence. Many signs give direction to human activity and symbolize societal quest for order. Others reflect tastes, values and attitudes, in concert with prevailing belief systems. Signs are both cultural phenomena and landscape statements that attest to the way of life in a place.     

The Purpose-Driven Darwinist: Henry Ward Beecher and the Theology of Progress

Henry Ward Beecher's sermon series on evolution in the summer of 1885 reconciled Christianity to the new science in a way that asserted far more than the mere compatibility of natural selection and divine providence: The Brooklyn preacher appropriated Darwinism to support a uniquely bourgeois political theology, one that envisioned the spiritual progress of humanity through commercial republicanism, aided by a morally assertive (but emphatically modernist) church. Coming from so prominent a clergyman, this early adaptation of evolution theory highlights the liberal and postmillennial tendencies of American Christianity in the late nineteenth century, as well as the pliability of Darwin's scientific insights to diverse social agendas. Beecher's sermons, however, also open a window onto the philosophical dilemmas that preoccupied early progressives. Addressing both the ontological revolution of Darwinism and the social realities of industrialization, Beecher articulates an account of progress that succeeds without the supervision of government, that prizes the liberty and property of the individual, and that arches toward a télos of moral perfection – a perfection that conforms, more or less, to the Protestant ethic.     

The Allison Commission and the national map: towards a Republic of Knowledge in late nineteenth-century America

From 1884 to 1886, the U.S. Congressional Allison Commission convened to address the administrative organization and escalating costs of the major federal scientific agencies, and to establish new modes of accountability to ensure their proper conduct. Much of the commission's attention turned to the Geological Survey's plans for the production of a geodetically accurate, national topographic map (in 2600 sheets), and the national geologic map that would follow the topographic work. While critics saw the national mapping program as an immense and inefficient scientific boondoggle, its advocates, notably its author, Survey Director John Wesley Powell, saw instead a tangible reflection of science's republican virtue – a vision of the body politic founded on both the production and the democratic and geographical distribution of useful scientific information. This paper explores the scientific nature of territoriality in late nineteenth-century America by revisiting a moment when both the technical requirements and fiscal expenses of America's new national mapping program were called into question. Through a close reading of the conflicts between Powell and the Alabama Representative, commission member, and future US Secretary of the Navy Hilary Abner Herbert, the paper examines the hearings as a complex hybrid of public sphere and formal legislative arena. The outcomes of these debates would have profound implications for the politics of scientific expertise amidst the rising American Leviathan, and for the changing dimensions of modern state territoriality and sovereignty.     

Ethics Appropriate for an Empire: A Question Whose Time Has Come

Abstract

This article offers a Christian ethical commentary upon the debate over the contemporary "American Empire." While many decry unprecedented US global dominance based on various secular standpoints, few have articulated religiously-grounded perspectives on this new US relation to the world. The task of mustering religious objections to openly imperial ambitions looms particularly large in light of prominent unabashed defenses of US global hegemony. The paper has three parts: (1) preliminary clarifications regarding terminology and context; (2) a survey of policies (e.g., unilateralism in foreign policy, interventions, a doctrine of pre-emptive war, diminished regard for international institutions) that reflect imperial ambitions and conflict with mainstream Christian perspectives on global justice and self-determination; and (3) a tentative listing of seven criteria appropriate for the pursuit and exercise of power on the part of global hegemons, in light of Christian principles. The constructive task is aimed at offering ethical constraints, such as the judicious correlation of means and ends in foreign policy. We will evaluate the contributions of Catholic social thought and the school of Christian realism on key questions: Is the notion of empire ever morally acceptable? Is "benevolent hegemony" possible in our times? If so, on what terms?     

The limitation of human knowledge: Faith and the empirical method in John Wesley's medical holism

In his medical and scientific works John Wesley provided an interpretation of the universe that was structured, though not pre-ordained, by God. The empirical method he adopted was measured in terms of efficacy and judged according to rationalistic standards. Its practical success, however, was used by Wesley to underpin his vocation of practical piety, which developed out of a holistic view of nature inspired by the spiritualism of Primitive Christianity. Accordingly, the providential ordering of Man and nature meant that safeguarding physical health became a spiritual act, though Wesley separated the discourse of religion and terminology of medicine. This distinction was essential because it ensured intellectual integrity whilst leaving a protective space for religious faith. He made this move on the one hand but saw no contradiction in bringing the discourses of religion and medicine together to serve his mission. For Wesley, social and personal improvement did not rely exclusively on enlightened thinking or religious faith. Rather it depended on showing how rationalism and faith could display separate strengths within an overall framework of holism.     

Regional Journals in Geography: A Vision for the 21st Century*

Abstract

This paper (originally published in The North West Geographer, 1997, 1(1), 2–17)) contributes to the debate on journals in geography and the production of geographical knowledge by considering a hitherto neglected issue – the role of regional journals of geography. Initially, an overview is provided which considers issues such as the status of the regional journal within the discipline and its fortune relative to the changing concerns of geography in the late 20th Century. A case study of The Manchester Geographer then critically appraises this particular journal's contribution to geographical knowledge. Finally, and in conclusion, some suggestions are offered which it is believed would ensure that regional journals perform a useful and unique role in the production of geographical knowledge in the 21st Century.     

Classical Biography: An Ancient Literary Art

The contradictory and distorted portrayal of certain female attributes in Pablo Neruda's Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada is an attempt to understand and unveil, from an adolescent's point of view, the mystery of the "beloved." The lack of knowledge about the female explains the ambivalence and insecurity in the representation of the woman, which resolves itself through a strategy of metamorphosis and textual dissection. Nevertheless, to discover and possess these female attributes is an illusion, a mirage created by masculine desire that only succeeds in approaching the beloved through a series of metamorphoses and fragmentation that actually obscures her further. But the effort is not in vain. The desire to understand (and love) makes possible the pursuit of the female who always is the same, although somehow different: the unknown stranger.     

Gender, nature, empire: women naturalists in nineteenth century British travel literature

Among the many British women abroad in the late nineteenth century were a number of travellers who toured the American West with a naturalist's pen and sketchbook. California, with its giant sequoias and redwoods, scenic Yosemite Valley and Sierra Nevada, and the Mediterranean flora of the southern coasts, especially attracted travellers with a naturalist orientation. We examine the botanical and naturalist writings and art of two well-known (and well-heeled) world travellers – Constance Gordon Cumming and Marianne North – and another more obscure British aristocrat, Theodora Guest, sister of the Duke of Westminster, who travelled in California in the late nineteenth century. We examine relationships among these elite women's association with the Romantic aesthetic and naturalist traditions, natural sciences, class-based associations between women and flowers, and emergent environmentalism. The works of these women indicate the process by which natural history rhetorics and styles became embedded within gender, class, and imperial relations; and how the division of natural history into professional and amateur domains relegated women to discursive margins.     

Tutoring Relevant Geography: A People's Geography Project initiative

UK geography departments are now reaching the stage where, in light of social change and growing competition for students, the need to offer a degree programme that is relevant to the needs and expectations of students is a real urgency. Drawing on the People's Geography Project, an initiative from the USA, this paper details the experiences of the author in teaching relevant geography in first-year undergraduate tutorials. The paper contends that by providing an opportunity for students to engage in contentious debate and to adopt a political position, students are encouraged to approach issues from a critical geographical perspective, demonstrate the relevance of a geographical perspective in contemporary issues, recognise the conflicting interests from competing discourses and reach a possible, just solution to social problems. This paper reports on the choice of topics, the forum of debate and assessment through alternative coursework styles, and it analyses the learning of both geographical and transferable skills through a People's Geography tutorial programme. The degree of relevance perceived by both the students and the tutor is evaluated, and suggestions are made for further development of a People's Geography approach.     

Situating In Situ: A Critical Geography of Agricultural Biodiversity Conservation in the Peruvian Andes and Beyond

This paper investigates seed politics through the case study of a native potato repatriation and related livelihood projects at the Parque de la Papa (Parque) in the Peruvian Andes. This in situ oriented agrobiodiversity initiative launches a compelling critique—framed in distinctly spatial terms—of standard ex situ conservation paradigms and policies. Specifically, it works to decentralize seed conservation and to re‐situate agrobiodiversity within in situ sites and situations. This spatial reconfiguration has political and epistemological implications: it recontextualizes agricultural expertise and the fruits thereof in the farms and daily lives of Andean communities; it grounds political interventions, which recently led to Peru's decade‐long moratorium on transgenics; and it offers a decolonizing vision of genetic resource value. Through a variety of practices and discourses the Parque is articulating and actualizing a critical geography of agrobiodiversity and its conservation.     

Colonial Emulation,Competition and Opportunism: A Twentieth-Century Spanish Perspective on the British and French ‘Empire Projects’

ABSTRACT

Through the views of Francisco Franco’s major adviser on African Affairs, this paper reveals a hitherto neglected aspect of the long-standing interaction between competing ‘imperial projects’ in the twentieth century. Tomás García Figueras’s (1892–1981) speeches, writings and personal archive provide a long-term and well-informed Spanish perspective on the British and French colonial systems, offering us a model to make sense of three major aspects of inter-imperial relations: emulation, competition, and opportunism. Through this insight into the dynamics of imperial interaction, and the ever-evolving dialogues and exchanges between ‘empire projects’ from around the European peninsula, this article provides some key elements to answer the long-standing question of what motivates empires to expand, adapt, or contract. It illuminates the ways in which officials engaged in the day-to-day running of European empires looked at each other, in search for examples and counter-examples, emulation or, simply, opportunities. Crucially, it illustrates how ‘empire projects’ of varying clout interacted with each other, within the limits of realpolitik but well beyond linguistic obstacles, as the multilingual material assembled in the García Figueras archive clearly attests. It also charts, among national and socio-cultural circles hitherto neglected, the evolution in thinking about colonialism and decolonisation throughout the twentieth century.     

Culture builders: A historical anthropology of middle-class life

ABSTRACT

James Boswell (1740–1795) is most famous for writing the masterly biography of his friend and mentor The Life of Samuel Johnson, published in 1791, only a few years before his own death. However, during Boswell’s own lifetime he was far more famous for his other major work, the Account of Corsica (1768). The Account of Corsica has been rather neglected by modern scholarship. This article will attempt show its importance in the context of the mid eighteenth century. Boswell’s Account was in fact the latest in a series of British publications concerning the island of Corsica during the eighteenth century. This article will attempt to trace the evolution of the ideas of Corsica that developed in Britain; beginning with the outbreak of the Corsican revolt in 1728, and culminating with the publication of Boswell’s Account of Corsica in 1768. Corsica became an important case study for British self-reflection, concerning the type of Empire they would become. The main question raised by the case study of Corsica was whether Britain should be an empire that protects liberty across the globe, or a metropolitan commercial state?     

Russia's Electoral Geography: A Review

A noted specialist on the electoral geography of Russia reviews the existing body of work on the subject based on national elections, beginning with the RSFSR returns from the March 1989 voting for seats in the the USSR Congress of People's Deputies and extending to the presidential race of 2004. The author identifies major themes and methodologies relevant to a discussion of the political topography of Russia, before assessing the extent to which the country's emergent electoral landscape has been described. He emphasizes the importance of scale in interpreting the spatial patterns of electoral outcomes, as well as the social and economic correlates of voting across the regions. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: H10, O10, R10. 4 figures, 84 references.     

Benchmark Standards for Geography: A personal review

The Human–Environment Research Observatory (HERO) Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program aimed to develop the next generation of researchers working on place-based human–environment problems. The program followed a cooperative learning model to foster an integrated approach to geographic research and to build collaborative research skills. The program hosted 12–16 students annually, who first engaged in an intensive short course and then formed three- or four-person teams to conduct research in four biophysically and socioeconomically diverse places. The teams used cyberinfrastructure to collaborate and integrate their research and findings. Most of the REU students have opted to attend graduate school and specialize in human–environment research.     

Revisiting the Skills Agenda: A Complicated Geography

This paper revisits the skills agenda and suggests that in light of shifts from supply-side to demand-led provision within the UK higher education sector, there is a need to think more critically about the role and place of skills within university curricula. It suggests that if universities are to respond effectively to sector changes, then the increasing focus on embedding employability and skill development within curricula needs to be accompanied by consideration of how skills are understood, negotiated and given meaning at the curricula level. Consequently, this paper assesses how ‘place’ affects our understandings of skills; it moves on to address the relationship between skills and the development of student personality, before concluding with an exploration of the performance of skills, which questions what we actually mean when we talk about skills.     

Boosting nationalism with non‐nationalist ideology: A comparative biographical analysis of the Chinese communist revolutionaries

This article conducts a comparative biographical analysis to explain why the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) revolutionaries used non‐nationalist Marxism to boost a nationalist movement. It argues that these people, based on their own observations of the precommunist Chinese nationalism, thought that China lacked structural conditions for making a solid nationalist movement such as cultural homogeneity, mass literacy, and a shared pride in modern history. They thus turned to seek a non‐national ideology that could still fulfil the functions of integrating leading elites, mobilizing the masses, and motivating the patriots themselves. Then, to explain why the CCP leaders particularly adopted Marxism, this article draws comparison with the Kuomintang (non‐communist nationalists) elites who advocated for more patience and insistence to develop regular nationalism. The comparison shows that the CCP's impatient jump stemmed from their disadvantaged backgrounds that had limited their ideological horizon: lower‐class origins, narrow overseas experiences, poor education, and weak attachment to traditional culture. To pre‐existing literature, this article makes three contributions: (1) provides a more detailed interpretation of the CCP's diagnosis of Chinese nationalism; (2) explains why the same structural dilemmas produced nationalist and non‐nationalist responses alike; and (3) draws a biographical database of the CCP and the Kuomintang.     

“进步主义”背后的另一个面相:美国纽约市政改革中的坦慕尼协会

作为城市政治机器的代表,美国纽约市的坦慕尼协会一度被视为城市“毒瘤”,尤其在进步主义时代,改革者将其视为阻遏市政改革的罪魁祸首。这一脸谱化的负面形象在某种程度上是历史的选择性“记忆”,而坦慕尼协会对纽约城市发展的贡献却被选择性地“遗忘”。同时,坦慕尼协会的衰落并非缘于与城市进步主义运动互斥,相反,正是因为其拥抱改革,才瓦解了原有坦慕尼组织的权力网络。如果将坦慕尼协会置于更加宏观的历史视域下考察,还会发现美国政府与社会之间权力的消长,直接影响了坦慕尼协会的命运,而在其兴衰演变的过程中,美国政党政治从中获得了更大的发展空间。     

Een‐Gonyama Gonyama!: Zulu Origins of the Boy Scout Movement and the Africanisation of Imperial Britain

British imperialists in the late 19th century denigrated non‐western cultures in rationalising the partition of Africa, but they also had to assimilate African values and traditions to make the imperial system work. The partisans of empire also romanticised non‐western cultures to convince the British public to support the imperial enterprise. In doing so, they introduced significant African and Asian elements into British popular culture, thereby refuting the assumption that the empire had little influence on the historical development of metropolitan Britain. Robert Baden‐Powell conceived of the Boy Scout movement as a cure for the social instability and potential military weakness of Edwardian Britain. Influenced profoundly by his service as a colonial military officer, Africa loomed large in Baden‐Powell's imagination. He was particularly taken with the Zulu. King Cetshwayo's crushing defeat of the British army at Isandhlawana in 1879 fixed their reputation as a ‘martial tribe’ in the imagination of the British public. Baden‐Powell romanticised the Zulus' discipline, and courage, and adapted many of their cultural institutions to scouting. Baden‐Powell's appropriation and reinterpretation of African culture illustrates the influence of subject peoples of the empire on metropolitan British politics and society. Scouting's romanticised trappings of African culture captured the imagination of tens of thousands of Edwardian boys and helped make Baden‐Powell's organisation the premier uniformed youth movement in Britain. Although confident that they were superior to their African subjects, British politicians, educators, and social reformers agreed with Baden‐Powell that ‘tribal’ Africans preserved many of the manly virtues that had been wiped by the industrial age.     

Prophetic Perfectionism: The Afterlives of Nat Turner and John Brown

ABSTRACT

Recent fiction, film, art, and scholarship on nineteenth-century American abolitionists Nat Turner and John Brown shed light on the politics of their prophetic religion. Both men led violent rebellions against slavery for which they were executed. Prophetic perfectionism drove Turner and Brown but tended to fade in works about them. Exceptions to this pattern of reception include Jacob Lawrence's John Brown series (1941), Nate Parker's film The Birth of a Nation (2016), and Ted Smith's book Weird John Brown: Divine Violence and the Limits of Ethics (2014). This essay situates Turner's and Brown's prophetic perfectionism and their reception in the context of contemporary political theologies and aesthetics of religion and race.