Deracinated Dispossessions: On the Foreclosures of “Gentrification” in Oakland,CA

This paper challenges dominant geographies of urban theory by conceptualising the dynamics of displacement in Oakland through place‐specific histories of racial/spatial politics. It argues that the repeated transposition of a San Francisco‐based model of “tech gentrification” results in deracinated dispossessions, or accounts of displacement uprooted from grounded histories of racial violence and resistance. It also argues that, while urban scholars acknowledge the role of historical difference in contouring dispossessions in metropolitan versus postcolonial cities, this consideration should be broadened to account for the racial/colonial dimensions of urbanism in the US as well. Treating Oakland as a “crossroads of theory”, this paper joins calls for a deeper engagement between postcolonial urban studies and critical race and ethnic studies from North America. Drawing upon the authors’ activist and empirical work, it contends that “thinking from Oakland” demands a foregrounding of racial capitalism, policing, and refusal.     

Landscapes for Neolithic People in Mainland,Orkney

Journal of World Prehistory - Neolithic occupation of the Orkney Islands, in the north of Scotland, probably began in the mid fourth millennium cal BC, culminating in a range of settlements,...     

Memories of vacant lots: how and why residents used informal urban green space as children and teenagers in Brisbane,Australia, and Sapporo,Japan

Contact with nature is vital for the development of children and teenagers. In the past, informal urban green spaces (IGS) such as vacant lots appear to have been used for such purposes. We need to better understand how previous generations used IGS to make sure young people today can also enjoy its social, mental, emotional and physical health benefits. This study quantitatively compared adult residents' memories of IGS use in their childhood and teenage years in two geographically and culturally distinct cities: Brisbane, Australia, and Sapporo, Japan. The results showed most respondents (>70%) remembered using IGS in the past, and preferred it over other green space because it was easily accessible. Most (>70%) recalled experiencing no problems (e.g. danger of injury) when using IGS, a contrast to recently increasing parental concern for children's safety. Such factors may limit present IGS use and prevent it from fulfilling the important role it played for previous generations' recreation.     

Behind the Scenes with the Pen and Ink Corps! The role of the Army Pay Services during the Great War in maintaining the loyalty of the fighting soldier and preserving the social fabric of the United Kingdom

This paper explores the role of the Army Pay Services during the Great War. On the face of it this may not appear to be a major issue in the overall conduct of the War. However, the Army Pay Services, together with the expansion in depth and scope of separation and dependent’s allowances, and the employment of women resulted in a massive bureaucracy being effectively administered and managed. It is argued that the results of this maintained the loyalty of the fighting British Army and maintained the morale and social fabric of the nation.     

Speculating on Slums: Infrastructural Fixes in Informal Housing in the Global South

In this paper, we seek to revisit earlier work on the theory of rent, situating it in the current period of economic crisis and in relation to informal housing in the global South. More than ever, land is treated as a pure financial asset. Finance capital now exerts a profound influence over the production of space and exposes the built environment to the kinds of speculative binges that we have witnessed over the last decade. This is now as much a feature of living conditions in the poorest settlements of the global South as it is in the financial heartlands of the global North. We question key assumptions behind development interventions by arguing that infrastructural upgrading may decrease the security of tenure of residents of informal housing and call for a more nuanced approach that recognises the (post)colonial histories of urbanisation structuring access to land and housing.     

Cultural transmission in the ancient Near East: twenty squares and fifty-eight holes

Board games have a wide and complex distribution in the ancient world. Two board games from antiquity that were transmitted across the borders of empires and city states and played for nearly two millennia show only minor changes in the appearance of the board. This lack of branching for antique board games can be explained by the abstract characteristics of the games and the dominance of certain cultures in antiquity. A historical analysis of their transmission process supports this hypothesis.     

Middle Devonian gastropods from Xiangzhou and Wuxuan,Guangxi, South China

Eighteen taxa of Middle Devonian (Givetian) gastropods, including two new genera and five new species, are présent in the Tungkangling and Yingtang Formations, Wuxuan and Xiangxhou counties, Guangxi Province, China. Pingtianispira tuberculata gen. et sp. nov., Wuxuanella nodusa gen. et sp. nov. and Wuxuanella luifengshanensis sp. nov., Crenulazone wuxuanensis sp. nov. and Murchisonia luifengshanensis sp. nov. are erected from this distinct fauna. The fauna is dominated by nodose and unusual murchisonioids and has strong European and other Old World realm affinities.