The militarisation of aerial theatre: air displays and airmindedness in Britain and Australia between the world wars

ABSTRACT

Aerial theatre, the use of aviation spectacle to project images of future warfare, national power and technological prowess, was a key method for creating an airminded public in the early twentieth century. The most significant and influential form of aerial theatre in interwar Britain was the Royal Air Force Display at Hendon, in which military aircraft put on impressive flying performances before large crowds, including an elaborate set-piece acting out a battle scenario with an imaginary enemy. Hendon was emulated by other air displays in Britain and in Australia, even civilian ones. Indeed, the inability of the much smaller Royal Australian Air Force to regularly project spectacle on the scale of Hendon across a much larger nation created a gap which civilian aviation organisations then tried to fill. Hendon thus helped to propagate a militarised civilian aerial theatre, and hence airmindedness, in both Britain and Australia.     

Women endangered,says world population report

This report highlights key points from the UN Population Fund's "State of World Population 1997," which focused on women's right to choose in matters relating to reproductive health. The report documents global progress toward achieving reproductive rights for women and recommends more funding for reproductive health care and family planning and increased efforts to promote gender equality and individual rights. International agreements protect: the right to reproductive and sexual health throughout the life cycle; voluntary choice in marriage and childbearing and the means to determine when to have children; equality and equity in all spheres for men and women; and freedom from sexual violence and coercion. When these rights are denied, the result is maternal mortality (a death every minute). There is a lack of access to contraceptive services that affect 350 million women. Unsafe abortions are performed on 20 million women, of whom 70,000 die. There is a lack of access to sex education and services for teenagers that results in HIV infections and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). 1.5 million die from HIV/AIDS related causes, and another 1 million die from reproductive tract infections and STDs. Teenagers represent about 50% of the 333 million new cases of HIV and STDs that occur each year. Female genital mutilation is performed on 120 million girls and women, and 2 million are at risk each year. 2 million girls aged 5-15 years enter the commercial sex trade each year. The report documents the suffering from anemia and malnutrition and complications from pregnancy.     

Comments on the Guovdageaidnu seminar

Sammendrag

Forfatteren var selv en av deltakerne på NAVF's forskningsseminar i Kautokeino om minoritetsforskning sett fra humanistisk og samfunnsvitenskapelig side. I denne artikkelen gjør han rede for målsettinga med seminaret, som var en del av Forskningsrådets program for samisk og kvensk språk, historie og kultur. Han tar her saerlig for seg de grunnlagsproblem og forskningsetiske problem som generelt reiser seg i forskning som gjelder minoritets‐befolkninger, og setter seminaret i sammenheng med en pågående debatt ført av filosofer og sosialantropologer. Avslutningsvis gir forfatteren også en kortfattet vurdering av innleggene på seminaret sett i et slikt forskningsperspektiv. Hans eget innlegg på seminaret stod trykt i Acta Borealia nr. 1 1984.     

Field work: A view from the third world

André Béteille and T. N. Madan, eds. Encounter and Experience. Honolulu: The University Press of Hawaii, 1975. viii + 225 pp. Bibliography. $8.00.