The limits of library user education: arguments for a lecturer‐led,student‐centred approach

Abstract

The author discusses some of the thinking behind programmes of library instruction in higher education. The shortcomings of such courses are examined, with particular reference to a course for first‐year students at Portsmouth Polytechnic. The author argues that library instruction can only succeed when fully integrated with the teaching of the subject. This requires greater consideration by geography teachers of the relationship between bibliographic knowledge and substantive knowledge.     

Anglo-American Rivalry in the Middle East: The Struggle for the Buraimi Oasis, 1952–1957

Some French writers, most notably Jean-Baptiste Duroselle and André Tardieu, have argued that French strategic interests during the early decades of the twentieth century had been seriously harmed because, alone among the Great Powers of Europe, France lacked a ‘diaspora’ in the United States. As a result of this, they have claimed, France had no advocacy group prepared to defend the interests of the European ‘kin state’ at a time when France’s great rival, Germany, was amply endowed with a sizeable demographic presence in the United States, willing to speak out in defence of Germany and its foreign policy. Moreover, a second large European diaspora had become established in the United States, whose numbers would swell after the mid nineteenth century: the Irish. Not necessarily committed to promoting German interests, the Irish-Americans did militate strongly and consistently against British interests, such that by the time France and Britain had become close security partners preceding and during the First World War, what worked against British interests would also work against French ones. This article constitutes a critical examination of the Duroselle-Tardieu thesis regarding France's allegedly ‘missing’ diaspora, and cautions against attributing too much geo-strategic influence to either the German-American or Irish-American ‘lobby’.     

Rural Management——The Way Out for Tibetan Rural Areas

Tibetan towns and villages are the remotest areas in China regional society. The remoteness is evident in two aspects： （i） the natural environment; located in the southwestern frontier of China, as the core of the ＂the Third Extreme＂, Tibet claims to be the farthest area in terms of space, altitude and distance -- and com- pared with towns, this is really true of the villages, （z） the social environment; with the rapid development of Tibet＇s tourist industry in recent years, people tend to focus more on Tibet, but mainly on such cities as Lhasa, Shigatse and Tsetang. Beyond people＇s attention, towns and villages stay far away not only from those socio-economically and culturally developed areas but also from the focus of intensive social development.     

SIXTY-TWO AID PROJECTS: Blessings for The Tibetans

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The ILO: An Agency for Globalization?

The International Labour Organization, set up in 1919 to develop and promote labour standards, is at a crucial point. It has preached that labour is not a commodity and in 1969 received the Nobel Peace Prize. Since then it has run into trouble. This article considers how the ILO has failed to come to terms with the Global Transformation, seeing it as trying to play three roles — a standard‐setter, a technical assistance agency and a knowledge generator — without developing the professional capacity to do so. The big question is whether the ILO could become an effective development agency given the changing character of work and labour in globalizing labour markets and its antiquated governance structure.     

The European Union—a Reflection: The Theological Challenge

Abstract

The advisor on religious affairs of the European Commission's President recently suggested the need for a European political theology. He was acknowledging Christianity's past impact on European culture. He was also intimating that a creative Christian contribution to the making of Europe's future might partly depend upon some systematic theologically informed reflection upon the nature of the challenges which the continent currently confronts. This paper does not purport to supply such a theology which, by the nature of things, must be the fruit of a long-term collaborative exercise. It does, however, seek to provide a few pointers that might become the subject of further discussion. Following clues provided by Vatican II we may seek to discern some of those "signs of the times" which might disclose the issues at stake and which, in the light of general Christian understandings, may ultimately provide some guides for subsequent action.     

Promoting participation—Seeking sustainability: The ITK Dilemma

Moock, Joyce Lewinger and Robert E. Rhoades, eds. Diversity, Farmer Knowledge, and Sustainability. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992. xix + 278 pp. including index. $49.95 cloth; $18.95 paper.

Pottier, Johan, ed. Practising Development: Social Science Perspectives. London: Routledge, 1993. ix + 222 pp. including index. $18.95 paper.

Thurston, H. David. Sustainable Practices for Plant Disease Management in Traditional Farming Systems. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1992. xii + 279 pp. including bibliography and indices. $54.50 cloth.     

Review Symposium: The Whitlam Government — three views

Gough Whitlam, The Whitlam Government 1972–1975, Ringwood, Penguin/Viking, 1985, pp.788. $40.00 (cloth), $19.95 (paper).     

Shattered Dreams: The Longing for “Post Independent India”

For Dalits in rural India, Nehru's vision of an Indian nation-state devoid of caste prejudice stimulated dreams and hopes of a better future. As a people who regularly experienced social and economic marginalisation by the upper castes over the centuries, they saw independent India as a transformed space, one that would accommodate the needs and aspirations of all its citizens, especially the oppressed and downtrodden. By the end of the 1950s, however, such dreams had been shattered, as Dalits increasingly came to realise that they had been mostly excluded from development programs launched by the postcolonial state. Dalit exclusion from the process of nation-state building constitutes an injustice that ignores their contribution to the national project. In this paper I examine some of the narratives that were told to me by second- and third-generation Dalits. Their oral histories celebrate the Dalits' vital role in India's freedom movement and the period that followed. Pride in their contribution formed the basis of the new Dalit politics that developed in the 1980s through the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which has become an extremely powerful political force at the national level.