Theorizing a child–dog encounter in the slums of La Paz using post-humanistic approaches in order to disrupt universalisms in current ‘child in nature’ debates

This paper theorizes children's interspecies relation with dogs in La Paz Bolivia utilizing post-humanism and new materialism as its approach. This approach allows for the deconstructing of human–nature binaries found in discourses central to the children in nature movement. Questioning the universalizing of children's experience in nature the paper considers three propositions. Firstly, what if children were viewed as nature rather than outside of it. Secondly, can the objects or ‘things’ of nature be viewed as animated. And finally, how sensitive is the contemporary imperative to reconnect children to a romanticized more natured life, to children's diverse worldly experiences. I explore these propositions drawing on a study where I have adopted a materialist ontology and theorized using the work of [Barad, Karen. 2007. Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. Durham, NC: Duke University Press] and her concept of intra-action as adopted by Rautio [2013a. “Children Who Carry Stones in Their Pockets: On Autotelic Material Practices in Everyday Life.” Children's Geographies 11 (4): 394–408]. Based on my child–dog interspecies exploration, I will conclude by re-addressing the three propositions.     

‘They never pass me the ball’: exposing ableism through the leisure experiences of disabled children,young people and their families

In this paper, we explore the participation of disabled children, young people and their families in leisure activities. Drawing on the accounts of disabled children, young people, and their parents and careers, we reflect on the leisure spaces that they access and record some of their experiences within them. Using the concept of ‘ableism’ [Campbell, F. K. 2009. Contours of Ableism. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan] we interrogate the data gathered as part of a two-year project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council Does Every Child Matter, post-Blair? The interconnections of disabled childhoods' (RES-062-23-1138). By doing so we identify some of the inherent and embedded discriminations in favour of those children and young people who are perceived to be ‘able’ that simultaneously work to exclude the young ‘kinds of people’ [Hacking, I. 2007. “Kinds of People: Moving Targets.” Proceedings of the British Academy 151: 285–318] categorised as ‘disabled’ and their families from leisure facilities and opportunities. We suggest that currently, disabled families and children occupy a mix of ‘mainstream’, ‘segregated’ and ‘separate’ leisure spaces. We discuss the impact of occupying these spaces and ask what the experiences of accessing leisure by disabled children, young people and their families reveal about the processes and practices of ableism.     

A Review of “Cultures of the Erotic in Spain, 1898–1939, and A Virtual Wunderkammer: Early Twentieth Century Erotica in Spain”

Abstract

Christopher Rivers. Face Value: Physiognomical Thought and the Legible Body in Marivaux, Lavater, Balzac, Gautier, and Zola. The University of Wisconsin Press, 1994. xii + 275 pp.

Brian T. Fitch. The Fall: A Matter of Guilt. (Twayne's Masterwork Studies.) New York: Twayne Publishers, 1995. xii + 136 pp.     

ORGANIZATION,LEGITIMATION, PARTICIPATION

This article suggests a new interpretation of the state formation process in Early Modern Sweden, focusing on three dimensions: The organization of the state as a way to use limited resources in a rational way, the legitimation of rulers in terms of beliefs and values current in society, and the participation of the subjects in state activities. Our model focuses on institutional change as a result of the intensity of interaction between rulers and subjects. Based on our own research, claims are made for new understanding of state formation in Europe that allows more room for political action from below.     

The only way is ethics? Applying for National Health Service ethical approval and governance for research with children

ABSTRACT

In this Viewpoints piece, we reflect on the process of applying for National Health Service (NHS) ethical approval and governance for research with children in England. We present a case study of our experiences of navigating the Integrated Research Application System (IRAS) for one study, The Hair Study. We argue that, for children’s geographers, getting to grips with the complex processes of applying for NHS ethical approval and governance is important when considering the move towards interdisciplinary working, and engagement with children in underexplored spaces and places, such as: doctors surgeries; hospitals; dentists; and other services commissioned by the NHS.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed in this article: Solon Barraclough and Krishna Ghimire, Agricultural Expansion and Tropical Deforestation: Poverty, International Trade, and Land Use David Sogge, Give and Take: What's the Matter with Foreign Aid? Joanna Macrae, Aiding Recovery? The Crisis of Aid in Chronic Political Emergencies J. E. Stiglitz and Pierre‐Alain Muet (eds), Governance, Equity and Global Markets Richard Freeman (ed.), Inequality Around the World Nils Bhinda, Stephany Griffith‐Jones, Jonathan Leape and Matthew Martin, Private Capital Flows to Africa: Perception and Reality Robert Ebel and Rajan Menon (eds), Energy and Conflict in Central Asia and the Caucasus Samantha F. Ravich, Marketization and Democracy: East Asian Experiences Else Øyen et al. (eds), Best Practices in Poverty Reduction: An Analytical Framework Karen Brock and Rosemary McGee, Knowing Poverty: Critical Reflections on Participatory Research and Policy Judy Batt and Kataryna Wolczuk (eds), Region, State and Identity in Central and Eastern Europe Harald Wydra, Continuities in Poland's Permanent Transition Joseph Fewsmith, China Since Tiananmen: The Politics of Transition Gita Sen, Asha George and Piroska Ostlin (eds), Engendering International Health: The Challenge of Equity Trevor Parfitt, The End of Development? Modernity, Post‐modernity and Development Linda Whiteford and Lenore Manderson (eds), Global Health Policy,Local Realities: The Fallacy of the Level Playing Field Gary S. Fields, Distribution and Development: A New Look at the Developing World     

Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: R.G., Golledge, H. Couclelis, P. Gould (editors) A Ground for Common Search, Santa Barbara E.W. Soja Postmodern Geographies: The Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory Bill McGibben The End of Nature G.J.R. Linge, and G.A. van der Knaap, (editors) Labour, Environment and Industrial Change Sophie Watson Accommodating Inequality D.I. Smith and J.W. Handmer (editors) Flood Insurance and Relief in Australia G.J. Symen, B.J. Shaw, D.M. Fenton and W.S. Mueller (editors) The Planning and Evaluation of Hallmark Events M. Hordern Mariners are Warned! John Lort Stokes and H.M.S. O.H.K. Spate The Pacific since Magellan Allen J. and White J.P., 1988: “The Lapita homeland: some new data and an interpretation” Campbell I.C., 1990; A History of the Pacific Islands Pacific Islands, Journal of the Polynesian Society Spate, O.H.K., 1978: The Pacific as an Artefact, In N. Gunson, (ed.), The Changing Pacific: Essays in Honour of HE Maude Spate, O.H.K., 1983: The Pacific since Magellan: Il. Monopolists and Freebooters J.A. Kesby and K.J. Frawley The Forest Record in Australian Local and Regional History: An Annotated Bibliography Panbiogeography Special Issue New Zealand Journal of Zoology Jim Falk and Andrew Brownlow The Greenhouse Challenge: What's to be done?     

YOUNG ACTIVISTS IN MUDDY BOOTS

The Swedish youth organization Fältbiologerna was founded in 1947 with the mission to inspire learning about nature through outdoor activities. Since then, the members have stayed true to their slogan ‘keep your boots muddy’ through engaging in bird watching and forest excursions; however, in the late 1960s and early 1970s – a period that environmental historians refer to as the ‘ecological turn’ – the organization’s activities were extended to also include political activism. Fältbiologerna increasingly evolved into a fertile terrain for young environmentalists. In this article, we explore how this Swedish branch of modern environmental youth activism came about. Based on a close reading of the members’ journal, Fältbiologen, between 1959 and 1974, we identify four key characteristics that were communicated in the journal during the years of study: adventurous, knowledgeable, influential, and radical. We demonstrate that Fältbiologerna took an increasingly radical position and began to engage in environmental debates and actions, while still holding on to ideals of learning through spending time in nature. Participation in these different activities shaped the young members into environmentalists.     

Priestley on materialism and the essence of God

ABSTRACT

The paper focuses on Priestley’s complex views on the essence of God in connection with his materialism, elaborated in the Disquisitions Relating to Matter and Spirit (1777/ 1782). This issue is crucial if one wishes to get a clear idea of what Priestley’s materialism amounts to; whether it is mainly a thesis about the material grounds of the human mind (“psychological materialism”), or a more far-reaching one about what kind of substances exist in the world (a version of “ontological materialism”). The claim that God may be material allows for the most radical version of ontological materialism according to which everything in the world is material, without altogether denying that God exists. In fact, Priestley considers and partially defends at least three different views on the potential materiality of God: (1) an agnostic stance that is his official view, (2) materialism about God based on his own theory of matter, and (3) “gross” materialism about God. The aim of the paper is to analyze these three views, in particular concerning what kind of materialism they support and whether they can contribute to the consistent Christian materialism Priestley envisaged.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed: Ronaldo Munck, Contemporary Latin America Carmen Diana Deere and Magdalene León, Empowering Women: Land and Property Rights in Latin America Annelies Zoomers and Gemma van der Haar (eds), Current Land Policy in Latin America: Regulating Land Tenure under Neo‐liberalism Annelies Zoomers (ed.), Land and Sustainable Livelihood in Latin America Sudipta Kaviraj and Sunil Khilnani (eds), Civil Society: History and Possibilities Rajesh Tandon and Ranjita Mohanty (eds), Does Civil Society Matter? Governance in Contemporary India Ha‐Joon Chang, Globalization, Economic Development and the Role of the State Yilmaz Akyüz (ed.), Developing Countries and World Trade: Performance and Prospects George Monbiot, The Age of Consent: A Manifesto for a New World Order Paul Kennedy, Dirk Messner and Franz Nuscheler (eds), Global Trends and Global Governance Paulette Goudge, The Whiteness of Power: Racism in Third World Development and Aid John Clark (ed.), Globalizing Civic Engagement: Civil Society and Transnational Action Julian Le Grand, Motivation, Agency and Public Policy: Of Knights and Knaves, Pawns and Queens Richard Robison and Vedi R. Hadiz, Reorganising Power in Indonesia: The Politics of Oligarchy in an Age of Markets Sara Oldfield (ed.), The Trade in Wildlife: Regulation for Conservation Patricia L. Howard (ed.), Women & Plants: Gender Relations in Biodiversity Management and Conservation Ernest Aryeetey, Julius Court, Machiko Nissanke and Beatrice Weder (eds), Asia and Africa in the Global Economy Jane I. Guyer, Marginal Gains. Monetary Transactions in Atlantic Africa Amanda Hammar, Brian Raftopoulos and Stig Jensen (eds), Zimbabwe's Unfinished Business: Rethinking Land, State and Nation in the Context of Crisis D. John Shaw, Sir Hans Singer: The Life and Work of a Development Economist     

Book Reviews

Twenty Years On, special issue of Australian Historical Studies (1996) Carpenter, Jennifer and MacLean, Sally-Beth (eds) Power of the Weak: Studies on Medieval Women (1995); Ward, Jennifer (ed.) Women of the English Nobility and Gentry, 1066–1500 (1995); Goldberg, P. J. (ed.) Women in England c. 1275–1525. Documentary Sources (1995) Surtz, Ronald E. Writing Women in Late Medieval and Early Modern Spain: The Mothers of Saint Teresa of Avila (1995); Yarbro-Bejarano, Yvonne Feminism and the Honor Plays of Lope de Vega (1993) Matter, E. Ann and Coakley, John (eds) Creative Women in Medieval and Early Modern Italy: A Religious and Attistic Renaissance (1994); Monson, Craig A. Disembodied Voices: Music and Culture in an Early Modern Italian Convent (1995) Goodman, Dena The Republic of Letters: A Cultural History of the French Enlightenment (1994) Ruane, Christine Gender, Class, and the Professionalization of Russian City Teachers, 1860–1914 (1994) Dyhouse, Carol No Distinction of Sex? Women in British Universities, 1870–1939 (1995) Bonner, Thomas Neville To the Ends of the Earth: Women’s Search for Education in Medicine (1992); Roberts, Shirley Sophia Jex-Blake. A Woman Pioneer in Nineteenth Century Medical Reform (1993); Leneman, Leah In the Service of Life: The Story of Elsie Inglis and the Scottish Women’s Hospitals (1994) Hartman Strom, Sharon Beyond the Typewriter: Gender, Class, and the Origins of Modern American Office Work, 1900–1930 (1992); Kwolek-Folland, Angel Gendering Business: Men and Women in the Corporate Office, 1870–1930 (1994); Cohen, Miriam Workshop to Office: Two Generations of Italian Women in New York City, 1900–1950 (1992) Swindells, Julia (ed.) The Uses of Autobiography (1995) Alexander, Sally Becoming a Woman and Other Essays in 19th and 20th Century Feminist History (1994): Davidoff, Leonore Worlds Between: Historial Perspectives on Gender and Class (1995)     

Theatre Elicitation: developing a potentially child-friendly method with children aged 8–12

ABSTRACT

This article discusses the growing body of literature published in Children Geographies on the importance of involving children in research processes. Inspired by participatory creative methods such as photo elicitation and popular/forum theatre, we have developed a potentially child-friendly tool referred to as Theatre Elicitation (TE). The objective of TE is to use theatre forms as a means of data collection in the context of a negotiated research process. In a pilot project in which we explore TE, children shared their perceptions of happiness. This was inspired by a UNICEF Report [2007. Child Poverty in Perspective: An Overview of Child Well-being in Rich Countries. Innocenti Report Card 7. Florence: UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre] that listed ‘Dutch children’ as the happiest of the world. The focus of this article is the development of TE as an interactive research tool. Insights were gained into the meaning of ‘child-friendly’ research, shifting power relations between children, peers and adults, and how children’s own positioning in lived experiences contextualized concepts such as ‘Dutch children’.     

Children as community planners: embodied activities,visual-spatial thinking,and a re-imagined community

ABSTRACT

This qualitative research endeavor explored the role of embodiment as a pathway to visual-spatial thinking. The researchers relied on an interdisciplinary approach using geography and theater rooted in kinesthetic and empathetic embodied activities to facilitate visual-spatial thinking within the context of a community redevelopment project. The participants consisted of 14 elementary and middle school aged girls attending a Girls Inc. program within a low-income housing community. The researchers situated the findings using McCormack’s ([1998. Visual/Spatial Thinking: An Essential Element of Elementary School Science. Washington, DC: Council for Elementary School Science]; [2011. “Don’t Verbalize, Visualize!” NSTA WebNews Digest. Accessed June 15, 2016. http://www.nsta.org/publications/news/story.aspx?id=58298]) visual-spatial thinking typology and theories of embodiment. The findings revealed that the girls exhibited three types of visual-spatial thinking, which ranged from foundational to highly advanced ways of thinking about space, to include visual-spatial perception, memory, and creative thinking. The results also illustrate that embodied activities that engage sensorimotor functions through an interdisciplinary approach, can facilitate visual-spatial thinking.     

The Board of Deputies of British Jews and the initial phase of the Italian Racial Laws: reactions and strategies (1938–1940)

ABSTRACT

This article aims to reconstruct the activities of the Board of Jewish Deputies, the central representative body of British Jewry, in support of the Italian Jews affected by the Fascist Racial Laws of 1938. By analysing the institution’s documents and examining the most widely read Jewish newspaper in the U.K., the Jewish Chronicle, this research investigates how the initial phase of the Italian anti-Semitic campaign was received in Great Britain, and what measures were put in place by British Jewry in their attempts to help the Italian Jews. The Jewish historian, Cecil Roth, played an important role during this phase, in active collaboration with the leadership of the Board and the staff of the Jewish Chronicle, gathering as much information as possible on Italy and its history in order to shed light on the events that were taking place during the first years of the Racial Laws and until the entrance of Italy into WWII (1938–1940). The involvement of certain members of the Foreign Office with links to the Board, and the shared goal of helping Italian Jewry, was also fundamental in this period.     

From the logic of ideas to active-matter materialism: Priestley’s Lockean problem and early neurophilosophy

ABSTRACT

Empiricism is a claim about the contents of the mind: its classic slogan is nihil est in intellectu quod non fuerit in sensu, “there is nothing in the mind (intellect, understanding) which is not first in the senses.” As such, it is not a claim about the fundamental nature of the world as material. I focus here on in an instance of what one might term the materialist appropriation of empiricism. One major component in the transition from a purely epistemological claim about the mind and its contents to an ontological claim about the nature of the world is the new focus on brain–mind relations in the eighteenth century. Here I examine a Lockean trajectory as exemplified in Joseph Priestley’s 1777 Disquisitions Relating to Matter and Spirit. However, Locke explicitly ruled out that his inquiry into the logic of ideas amounted to a “physical consideration of the mind.” What does it mean, then, for Priestley to present himself as continuing a Lockean tradition, while presenting mental processes as tightly identified with “an organical structure such as that of the brain” (although he was not making a strict identity claim as we might understand it, post-Smart and Armstrong)? One issue here is that of Priestley’s source of “empirical data” regarding the correlation and indeed identification of mental and cerebral processes. David Hartley’s theory in his 1749 Observations on Man was, as is well known, republished in abridged form by Priestley, but he discards Hartley’s “vibratory neurophysiology” while retaining the associationist framework, although not because he disagreed with the former. Yet Hartley was, at the very least, strongly agnostic about metaphysical issues (and it is difficult to study these authors while bracketing off religious considerations). One could see Locke and Hartley as articulating programs for the study of the mind which were more or less naturalistic (more strongly so in Hartley’s case) while avoiding “materialism” per se; in contrast, Priestley bit the (materialist) bullet. In this paper I examine Priestley’s appropriation and reconstruction of this “micro-tradition,” while emphasizing its problems.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviews in this Article: Robert H. Eisenman and Michael Wise Allan K. Davidson Glenn K. Horridge : The Salvation Army: origins and Early Days G. W. Trompf : Melanesian Religion. Val Noone : Disturbing the War: Melbourne Catholics and Vietnam.     

Xi'an as an Inner China Development Model

An American geographer examines the recent economic resurgence of a historically significant city in China's interior as a result of a policy utilizing science and technology research institutions and the local labor force to "jump-start" technology-intensive growth. The study, based on a series of interviews and data gathered during field research in 2000 and 2002, reveals synergies among the city's pre-existing defense-related activities (electronics and aviation), its favorable financial and transport infrastructure, and the concentration of several large, prestigious technical universities, which have been utilized in the transformation of the city economy toward high-technology production for China's domestic market. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: F23, H50, O18. 7 figures, 2 tables, 36 references.     

Religious transnationalism among Ghanaian immigrants in Toronto: a binary logistic regression analysis

Thanks to pioneering work within anthropology, students of international migration acknowledge that most immigrants do not sever their ties with the homeland, but rather maintain them through a variety of cross‐border relationships. While scholarly work has proliferated, since the early 1990s, over the transnational economic and political activities of immigrants, to date, only few analysts have examined the religious practices with which immigrants sustain memberships in multiple locations. In addition, most available studies on transnational migration has dwelled on qualitative methods, such as participant observation, focus groups discussions and in‐depth interviews with a handful of informants, with little or no inclination towards the quantitative measurement of key variables implicated in the process. The prevalence of ethnographic methods in this area of research has, quite understandably, engendered charges of exaggeration, given the tendency of such techniques ‘to sample on the dependent variable’, to borrow the phrase of Alejandro Portes. Using data collected from a survey among Ghanaian immigrant congregations in Toronto, this study seeks to statistically predict the propensity to engage in transnational religious practices by way of a binary logistic regression analysis. In addition, the study examines how the transnational religious activities of the sampled immigrants relate to, overlap with, and differ from other kinds of transnational practices they pursue.     

Disturbing the data: looking into gender and family size matters with US Evangelical homeschoolers

This qualitative study draws on the theory of feminist physicist Karen Barad to examine how gender matters in Evangelical homeschooling families of various sizes, with an emphasis on large families. The two-phase data collection includes interviews with 18 participants and observations of several participants over one year. We use a Baradian analytic process called diffractive analysis to read the messy borders between the discursive and material for mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, and elements of homeschooling environments. We find that materiality intra-acted with gender in complex and sometimes surprising ways but that gendered possibilities in homeschooling are steeped in the terrains of politics, history, culture, economics, and environment. In addition, we see possibilities for using this method of analysis as a way to more carefully and complexly read data in the micro.     

‘I feel like this is a good place to be’: children's experiences at a community recreation centre for children living with low socioeconomic status

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the experiences of children living with low socioeconomic status (SES) at a community recreation centre using the framework of place attachment [Scannell, L., and R. Gifford. 2010. “Defining Place Attachment: A Tripartite Organizing Framework.” Journal of Environmental Psychology 30 (1): 1–10. doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2009.09.006]. Seven children took part in semi-structured interviews and drawing activities. Additional data were collected through observations, field and reflective notes, documents and a staff focus group interview. The overarching theme of having opportunities emerged from a thematic analysis of the data. The children, as they shared about their experiences at the centre, talked about having opportunities in three main ways: opportunities to do, opportunities to connect and opportunities to be. The findings are discussed broadly within the framework of place attachment and through the literature on after-school programming, children's geographies, place and SES.