Sexual citizenship in Latvia: geographies of the Latvian closet

This study examines sexual citizenship in Latvia. It investigates the process by which political narratives have heterosexed the nation since regaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. My aim in exploring this process is to develop a deeper understanding of non-heteronormative identities and counter-hegemonic spaces in this heterosexist society. Drawing on discourse analysis of political media statements I argue that despite the legalizing of homosexuality, political narratives have continued to sex the nation as heterosexual, forging the national closet. I then explore how these narratives become experienced in lives of sexual minorities through the state's failure to prevent sexual discrimination. Drawing on participant observation and a decoding of the urban landscape, I investigate how the Latvian closet is materialized in the bodies and places of the everyday lives of ‘gay’ men living in the capital, Riga. Examined in this way insights are given to the spatial forms of political resistance to heterosexism in Latvia and how it differs from western models.     

Nation‐freezing: images of the nation and the migrant in citizenship packages

ABSTRACT. New nationalism differs from classical nationalism in terms of its content and focus. Whereas classical nationalism distinguishes itself from other nation‐states in defining its national identity, new nationalism distinguishes the ‘native’ national identity from that of its current and prospective citizens of migrant origin. The terms of integration thus become conditions of membership in the national community. Citizenship and integration policies emerge as central arenas where the discourse of new nationalism unfolds. This study looks into the discourses of cultural citizenship by studying the content of the official ‘citizenship packages’ – materials designed to welcome newcomers and assist them in their integration – in three Western European countries: The Netherlands, France and the UK. What images are depicted of the nation‐state and the migrant in citizenship packages, and (how) do these images freeze the nation?     

Beyond the civic–ethnic dichotomy: investigating the structure of citizenship concepts across thirty‐three countries

ABSTRACT. The traditional distinction between civic and ethnic citizenship continues to dominate the study of citizenship concepts. In recent years, various authors have questioned the dichotomous character of these concepts. In this article, we empirically investigate the applicability of this dichotomy based on an analysis of International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) survey data across thirty‐three societies. The analysis demonstrates that this dichotomous structure can indeed be detected and therefore the theoretical dichotomy can be considered as empirically valid. While ethnic citizenship refers most strongly to having national ancestry, for civic citizenship the most important criterion seems to be to obey national laws. However, the ethnic concept of citizenship can also be defined in a negative manner: for ethnic citizenship, obeying the national laws is clearly not a sufficient condition. Further analysis also reveals that the measurement of both concepts is not equivalent cross‐nationally, so that findings on civic and ethnic citizenship are difficult to compare across societies.     

A tale of ambiguity: citizenship,nationalism and democracy in Turkey

ABSTRACT. We argue that historically the official Turkish nationalism and citizenship regime have been marked by an ambiguity that arises from the simultaneous existence of – and repeatedly occurring swings between – the ethno‐centric and civic‐political understandings of citizenship. We also suggest that the concept of territoriality, which took precedence over other factors in the creation of a new state in 1923, has functioned as a hegemonic reference in the official conceptualisations of the Turkish nation and self. The territorial focus, over time, has been conflated with the ethnic conceptualisations of the nation: both become the underlining elements of the discourse of official nationalism in Turkey, and are utilised in the successive reformulations of citizenship into the 2000s. Through the analysis of schoolbooks and curricula, we further argue that the major oscillations in nationalism nevertheless coincided with the ruptures that characterised the making of modern Turkey: modernisation, democratisation, globalisation and Europeanisation.     

20世纪二三十年代安徽小学教员及其生计初探

19世纪末以来,随着现代教育的发展,教师逐渐成为一个新兴的职业群体。20世纪二三十年代,在安徽从事初等教育的主要是一个以中等学校毕业为主的男性群体。他们接受的是现代科学的训练,尽管学历不高,年龄不大,但却是乡村社会中的知识传播精英。他们收入微薄,繁重的生活压力与工作负担使得他们最终成为乡村革命的播火者。     

An account of cultural heritage and nature conservation in Mustang,Nepal

Abstract

This article was presented as a paper to ‘World Cultural Heritage: a global challenge’, an International Symposium at Hildesheim, Germany in February 1997. The paper outlines the problems of attempting to develop a combined heritage and tourism strategy for the small, remote, Himalayan kingdom of Mustang. The development of tourism brings both opportunities and threats to local people and their identity.     

Education for citizenship: community engagement between the Global South and the Global North

This paper discusses a fieldwork exercise in development geography undertaken by students in the UK. Based on community engagement in partnership with refugee and black minority communities in Liverpool, it explores how such fieldwork can deepen understanding of development geography, contribute to global citizenship and nurture personal skills. Students of development geography engaged in real-world experiential learning about the complexity of the social, economic and cultural issues facing refugees and black and racial minority groups, and the processes by which these change and evolve. The challenges of the fieldwork were positively received as students gained relevant and useful insights from their interaction with community stakeholders.     

试析尼印《和平与友好条约》签订的历史背景

1950年尼泊尔与印度缔结的《和平与友好条约》有着复杂的历史背景。悠久的文化联系、开放的边界以及密切的经济和政治交往,是该条约签订的基础。从尼泊尔方面来看,在稳定国内政治局势以及发展经济方面求助于印度,是它签订该条约的现实考虑;对印度而言,该条约可用来对尼泊尔国内的政治改革施加必要的影响,进而在地区安全构想方面,让尼泊尔成为其南亚安全框架的一部分,并借此抵制中国在这一地区的影响,这是它此时对尼外交政策的指导思想。     

Seismic Damage to Structures in the 2015 Nepal Earthquake Sequences

The 7.8 Mw Gorkha earthquake struck the east of Lamjung in Nepal, followed by a sequence of powerful aftershocks. Chinese Team Six including the authors inspected the seismic damage to civil structures along 10 paths in densely populated areas with a seismic intensity of VII to IX, 40 days after the main shock. The damage was categorized according to structure types and described in detail. Several conclusions are made: powerful aftershocks can significantly affect the failure patterns; geological conditions, structure types, and height have great influence on the level of damage; and the local risky retrofitting technique needs improvement badly.     

Sexual harassment in Korean college classrooms: how self-construal and gender affect students' reporting behavior

This article examines the reasons why women students may hesitate to report sexual harassment. The research draws on the notion of ‘self-construal’. Self-construal is a form of self-identification in social relationships, which in this case relates, in particular, to gender within cultural environments in Korea. For the purposes of this research, a survey was conducted with 298 Korean college students from 7 to 14 March 2006. The results showed that different types of self-construal had different influences on Korean college students' and their reporting of sexual harassment, whereas gender did not. Grounded in the theoretical framework of self-construal, people with independent self-construal were found to express their uncomfortable feelings and to report to the university counseling center, whereas people with interdependent self-construal did not. Furthermore, we found that women were more likely than men to directly express their opinions and report sexual harassment to the university counseling center. Men are also harassed by women colleagues or students but are often more reluctant than women to recognize their experiences as ‘sexual harassment’ because of the stereotype that men are the perpetrators of this behavior, not its victims, and because they fear ‘loss of face.’ It is necessary to engage not just with femininity but also with masculinity and the relationship between these constructs because they are both temporally and geographically contingent.     

冷战时期苏联对尼泊尔的经济和技术援助

20世纪50年代中期,出于对抗美国在南亚地区的战略影响,苏联与尼泊尔建立了外交关系,对尼援助计划也随之启动。由于受本国经济基础和意识形态等因素的影响,苏联对尼援助的主要领域是工业及其相关产业,对尼援助的主要目的就是扩大其在南亚的战略影响,防止尼泊尔加入西方阵营,同时希望孤立中国以及在尼泊尔培养一个亲苏政权。     

冷战时期苏联对尼泊尔的经济和技术援助

20世纪50年代中期,出于对抗美国在南亚地区的战略影响,苏联与尼泊尔建立了外交关系,对尼援助计划也随之启动.由于受本国经济基础和意识形态等因素的影响,苏联对尼援助的主要领域是工业及其相关产业,对尼援助的主要目的就是扩大其在南亚的战略影响,防止尼泊尔加入西方阵营,同时希望孤立中国以及在尼泊尔培养一个亲苏政权.     

民初惩罚女性性犯罪的法律问题

民国初年,国家对女性性犯罪的惩罚较前有所减轻。大理院通过一系列的解释例,对女性的通奸、重婚等性犯罪行为进行了相应的界定,强化女性性犯罪的告诉权;强调"无告诉权不理"、"律无处罚正文,即不为罪"等办案原则,对女性的性犯罪案件进行相应的宽宥处理。但在法律解释及司法实践中,北洋政府却也加强了对女性性犯罪的严格控制。     

Child Poverty in the American States: The Impact of Welfare Reform,Economics, and Demographics

This article identifies the predictors of child poverty rates at the state level before and after the adoption and implementation of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. The analysis shows that the most important state‐level factors that influence child poverty rates are demographics, the health and viability of the state economy, and often the generosity, inclusiveness, and quality of state welfare programs. States with large numbers of black citizens, and those that score highest on infant mortality, teen births, births to unmarried women, children living with a parent without a high school degree, and children living with a single parent have the highest rates of child poverty. Child poverty rates are lowest in states that suffer less unemployment, and in wealthier states. States that score higher on per capita personal income, tax revenues, and taxable resources have lower child poverty rates. While specific “tough” welfare policies adopted by some states seem to have no impact on child poverty rates, we tested for the first time a sophisticated measure of the overall quality of state welfare programs. The analysis reveals that the global quality of a state's welfare programs is often an independent predictor of child poverty. States with the most generous, inclusive, and supportive welfare programs have done the best job of lowering and containing child poverty.     

Locating strangers: multiculturalism, citizenship and nationhood in Australia

Questions over identity politics, difference, and associated claims of authenticity, now occupy centre-stage in many countries. In this paper we focus on the nature of multiculturalism, citizenship and identity politics as they are emerging in Australian society. Essentially, we argue that the demands of political recognition of cultural particularity by specific groups are presenting complex challenges to the public institutions of contemporary liberalism that rest on the neutrality of the public sphere in its treatment of free and equal citizens regardless of race, gender or ethnicity. The ideas of nationhood and national consciousness still present themselves as essential aspects of contemporary political life, even though many questions concerning a re-conceptualization of nation and citizenship abound. This is the context through which the paper examines nationhood in Australia, particularly the points of tension arising from contrasting notions of citizenship and national culture. Our intention is to provide a glimpse of Australian society in the face of these changes and to draw some theoretical and analytical conclusions concerning the challenges to state and civil society.     

Visual culture and geographical citizenship: England in the 1940s

This paper addresses the place of geography in England in the 1940s in relation to debates over reconstruction. It focuses on the ways in which a particular sense of geographical citizenship was promoted around questions of landscape and the visual. The paper addresses the aesthetic geographies developed in relation to debates on planning and preservation, and shows how they embodied a particular social aesthetic. The relational definition of citizenship in contrast to an “anti-citizenship” is discussed in connection with legislative moves for national parks and open-air recreation. The place of physical geography as a cultural practice is addressed in relation to issues of coastal survey and field study. The paper concludes by connecting these geographical imaginations into broader movements for visual education and the promotion of principles of design in modern life.     

Unruly topographies: unemployment, citizenship and land settlement in inter-war Wales

Between 1934 and 1939, over 5000 people, mainly ex-miners and their families, were settled in government-owned land settlements in England and Wales. This policy emerged as a response to mass unemployment, and complemented other schemes for the unemployed developed by the inter-war National Government. This paper will consider the geographical conditions that were imagined, realized and contested in these settlements. Acknowledging the hybrid and liminal nature of these spaces, the paper mobilizes new work in cultural and historical geography and draws out the heterotopic potential of the settlement programme.     

Cultures of Economies: Gender and socio-spatial change in Nepal

This article contributes to ongoing debates animating geography today about the boundaries between 'economy' and 'culture' and their implication for policy planning. It explores the mutual embeddedness of culture and economy through an ethnographic analysis of the interrelationships between spatial practices, economic strategies and gendered symbols of status in Nepal. The fine-grained ethnographic analysis presented here is intended specifically to challenge 'best practice' approaches accompanying the recent 'discoveries' within economic geography about the significance of culture in determining and promoting regional competitiveness and in presenting alternatives to capitalism. The article draws particularly on the practice theory of Pierre Bourdieu to reveal how local 'economics of practice' in Nepal establish and maintain gendered ideologies that structure material opportunities differentially for men and women. Feminist geography, meanwhile, contributes a spatial dimension to practice theories, important for understanding the relationship between individual consciousness, action, and social change. Throughout, the article reflects on the implications of processes of cultural production considered here for the epistemological frames within which development takes place.     

Youth,gender and livelihoods in West Africa: Perspectives from Ghana and the Gambia

In this paper we report on preliminary fieldwork conducted in Ghana and The Gambia on the interrelationships among youth, gender and livelihoods. We examine how policy in developing countries, typically characterised as related to child labour or education, needs to emphasise the linkage across processes that affect young people. We argue that policy will be improved if young people are given voice to express how work, education, social networks, and culturally-bound notions of responsibility are linked and how they perceive the opportunities and constraints on their ‘life chances’.     

Indexing Immigration and Integration Policy: Lessons from Europe

Immigrant‐related policy indexes have become popular in both U.S. and European contexts, yet these projects boast distinct and divergent trajectories. European indices are characterized by rigorous conceptualization, specificity in elements of policy design (e.g., settings like fees or appeal process), and a variety of measurement strategies. By contrast, U.S. state‐level policy indices exhibit a lack of differentiation between immigration and integration policy and excessive generality in measurement and representation of policy instruments and settings, exacerbated in presenting a policy index as an aggregate count. This paper argues U.S. policy indexing can benefit from the European indexing experience. Following an overview of the state of each field, assessing concept differentiation, specification, and measurement in each, the paper illustrates how even the well‐conceived and specified European integration policy indices run into problems at the analysis stage. It presents a replication‐replacement study to illustrate divergent performance of highly correlated and conceptually agreeing indices, as well as methodological issues inherent to indices of low‐N, including using a policy index as a dependent variable and index selection absent a priori theorization. It concludes with suggestions for improving American immigration policy indices, as well as general observations on working with statistical power‐challenged indices and data limitations.