Teaching politics: Power and process in tutorials

This paper offers lecturers and tutors a number of reflections upon practical strategies for improving the quality of tutorial teaching in the discipline of politics. It is assumed that a great deal of relevant learning can result from active and informed student discussion in small group tutorials, and that this is a commendable educational goal. Course organization and content will be considered in relation to how they may promote conditions for critical discussion between students. Particular attention, however, is directed to group process and the topics of fear and safety, power and authority, group norms, the ‘warm up’, group discussion techniques and closure. It is argued that tutorial teaching founded upon the use and adaptation of basic principles of group process can foster more open capacities for learning among students.     

Geotagging Photographs in Student Fieldwork

This resource paper provides guidance for staff and students on the potential educational benefits, limitations and applications of geotagging photographs. It also offers practical advice for geotagging photographs in a range of fieldwork settings and reviews three free smartphone applications (apps) for geotagging photographs (Flickr, Evernote and Panoramio). Geotagged photographs have the potential to encourage post-fieldwork student reflection on a landscape. A short case study of first-year undergraduates who geotagged photographs as a method of data collection is outlined. This resource paper also briefly discusses the use of student-owned devices in fieldwork which may reduce pressure on departmental budgets.     

学生亚文化与北洋时期学运

北洋时期中国校园孕育出特色各异的学生亚文化。学生运动与学生亚文化有着内在的逻辑联系,亚文化的多元决定了学运起落与内涵差异。在师生关系上,教师并不一定处于主导位置;在政党与学运的关系上,学生也并不总是受动的一方。国共两党均重视学运。在国共合作背景下,如何定性由具有双重身份且公开身份是国民党的党人开展的学生工作,还可商榷。学生运动有先天缺陷,政党对学生的运动也与时转移。但认真剖判各界认知,可知时人对学运主流仍是肯定的。     

Gender representation and participation in Dutch human geography departments

Since the beginning of the 1970s the under‐representation of women in geography has been questioned in several publications. Most articles refer to the situation in English‐speaking countries. This paper examines the vertical and horizontal gender segregation in human geography departments in Dutch universities. In spite of several policy measures to promote equal opportunity, women form only 19 per cent of all human geography faculty. In the conclusion, consequences and dilemmas related to gender representation and segregation are discussed.     

Land-holding,participation in agriculture and short-term migration in rural India

ABSTRACT

We analyse a nationally representative data set from India for the year 2013 in order to provide evidence on how short-term migration is affected by household ownership of land and participation in agricultural activities. We estimate a recursive-bivariate-probit model recognising the simultaneity between short-term migration and the decision to operate the land. The results of the likelihood ratio test imply that it would be incorrect to ignore this simultaneity. Households with less than 1?ha of land and those leasing out land are more likely to have a short-term migrant. Households leaving their land fallow, a common occurrence in South Asia, are also more likely to have a short-term migrant. Moreover, the choice of crops and livestock farming has a significant role to play in the migration decision. Current initiatives to increase coverage of irrigation and facilitate access to formal finance could improve the livelihoods of small and marginal farmers, thereby reducing the probability of distress-related short-term migration.     

Past and future for public participation in Norwegian physical planning

From around 1970 protests against many plans in Norway forced discussions about the role and results of planning. Protest came from people directly affected by plans and many others concerned about the environment. Planning was criticised for among other things, neglecting local interests and protection issues and for being authoritarian and directed from the top down. At the root of the criticism was a rejection of the prevailing politics and planning ideology. Demands for more democratic planning arose. Through experiments, partly initiated and encouraged by The Ministry of the Environment during the 1970s and 1980s, and extended process rules in the Planning and Building Act, the idea of public participation gradually emerged and became a commonly accepted part of plan preparation. The main picture is that planning in these years developed from an instrumental rationality into a more communicative approach, many plans were changed so that inhabitants could accept them, and public participation created innovative proposals. From the 1990s citizens' influence on planning became challenged by co-operation between developers and public agencies and by privately initiated local plans where great power lies in developers' hands. In this article the development of public participation in Norwegian physical planning is discussed. Some methods used and results achieved are analysed, illustrated with examples from practice. In the concluding part of the article some features of tomorrow's planning in Norway are discussed with regard to public participation and co-operation, and a proposal for stronger public control over the planning process is made.     

Student Empowerment through 'Area Analysis'

As a result of the teaching quality assessment at the Faculty of Spatial Sciences in Groningen (Netherlands), the course 'Gebiedsanalyse' (Area Analysis) was set up in spring 1998. The aim was to provide an opportunity for the development of transferable and geographical skills in the context of a group-based research project at level II. In addition, an effort was made to move from tutor-led to student-led learning. Experiences from the past 3 years have shown that Area Analysis has been largely successful in providing an opportunity for the application of geographical and transferable skills but also for the 'deep empowerment' of undergraduate students.     

On elections,voting and participation:

To summarise, there were five interesting features of the election: (i) the size of the first preference movement from the major parties to the Australian Democrats; (ii) the unexpected lack of any significant swing to Labor in the two‐party preferred vote; (iii) the notable uniformity of the results from state to state; (iv) such swing to Labor as did occur was mainly in seats already held by Labor and in urban areas; and (v) the results demonstrate that the electoral boundaries still contain a bias against Labor.     

Hidden Histories in Geography: A politics of inclusion and participation

Many geographers benefit from the support of unheralded teachers whose inspiration leaves important marks on their thinking. This paper considers the legacy of Jan Monk's professional contribution in terms of her fostering of wider structures that support the development of a disciplinary capacity for and commitment to good educational practice, her work in researching and bringing to light the hidden disciplinary roles of women in the development of the discipline, particularly in the USA, and the place and significance of her early work in Australia at the intersection of geography and indigenous studies. It concludes that her insistence on the importance of place and context, her attention to people's own sense of place in shaping their relations with each other and their wider worlds, continues to provide a powerful starting point for benchmarking our work as teachers, mentors and researchers.     

Mixed messages: youth participation and democratic practice

The article begins by observing that, over the last decade, the idea of youth participation has once more become a popular part of contemporary political talk both in Australia and in many Western societies. Indeed most Western governments now advocate enhanced youth participation as part of a discourse about modern citizenship, so much so that it has become a policy cliché to say ‘increased youth participation’ will ‘empower’ young people, help build community and remedy a range of social problems. It is also noted that, if the idea of participation itself is an old idea central to the liberal democratic tradition, the current ‘rediscovery’ of youth participation is arguably part of that political orthodoxy. Drawing on selected State, national and Commonwealth government youth documents, the question is asked whether the official enthusiasm for youth participation has much to do with democratic practice. It is argued that the recent government enthusiasm for youth participation is problematic for three reasons. First, it fails to recognise the significant obstacles that young people currently experience when trying to participate socially, economically and politically. Second, there is a failure to think through what democratic practice requires. Third, both the conceptualisation and operationalisation of official youth participation policies reveal an agenda that is seriously at odds with the rhetoric of democratic participation. This raises questions about whose voice is actually being heard and to what effect.

A litmus test of any government, however it may describe itself, is its treatment of children. (Yakovlev 2003 Yakovlev A 2003 A Century of Violence in the Soviet Union New Haven, CT: Yale University Press  [Google Scholar], 33)     

Reform from above: the politics of participation in the oil monarchies

The oil monarchies of the Middle East have usually been portrayed as patriarchal autocracies dominated by traditional tribal families who have come to encompass the modern states, its institutions and economy. The focus of much discussion about these states since the oil boom of the 1970s has been that oil income has provided their tribal elites with an economic boom and an ability to use 'rent' as their primary tool for the pacification of their citizens and for resisting demands for reform. In the light of significant political changes and reforms introduced in the oil monarchies since the late 1990s, it is time to reevaluate our assessment of the oil monarchies' ability to change, to adapt. Empirical data not only supports the view that the oil monarchies are introducing reforms, albeit at a varied speed, but that it is the elites themselves who are emerging as the greatest agents for change.