Immigration and multiculturalism

Katharine Betts, Ideology and Immigration. Australia 1976 to 1987, Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, 1988, pp. 234. $24.95 (paper)

Jock Collins, Migrant Hands in a Distant Land. Australia's Post‐War Immigration, Sydney, Pluto, 1988, pp. 302. $ 19.95 (paper)

Laksiri Jayasuriya, The Australian‐Asian Connection: Retrospect and Prospect. Sydney, Evatt Research Centre, 1988, pp. 36. $6.00 (paper)     

Knowledge of God According to Hosea the Ripper: The Interlacing of Theology and Social Ideology in Hosea 2*

Abstract

A semiotic reading of Hosea 2 suggests that two stories are told: The story of Hosea and Gomer, and the story of Yahweh and Israel. This semiotic entanglement, however, is also present in the passage of cosmic promises, Hos 2,18–25. “Knowing God” in the Book of Hosea is not just a question of adhering to a system of religious thoughts, it is a question of knowing how to live one's life according to specific social rules, namely that of patriarchy. The theology of the text cannot be separated from the ideology of the text. This is to be tested on the text of Hos 2,18–25 in which the emphasis is apparently firmly placed on the universal signified.     

The late George Alexander turner,M.D.

The paper argues the case for population geography as a strong, self‐aware sub‐discipline that plays to its strengths, while not abandoning innovation. In place of hollow calls for (re)‐theorisation, population geographers should first recognise their claims to certain kinds of praxis in contributing to an ethical and equitable society through the insights that population geography can bring. Second, the paper argues that rather than focusing on bringing social theory into population geography, there is more potential in examining how (in)adequately social theory has engaged with demographic issues. Third, the paper suggests that population geographers need to think about the new contexts in which they are engaging with large spatially‐referenced numerical data sets.     

Neighborhoods and Fertility in Accra, Ghana: An AMOEBA-based Approach

Fertility levels remain high in most of sub-Saharan Africa, despite recent declines, and even in a large capital city such as Accra, Ghana, women are having children at a pace that is well above replacement level and this will contribute to significant levels of future population growth in the city. Our purpose in this paper is to evaluate the way in which neighborhood context may shape reproductive behavior in Accra. In the process, we introduce several important innovations to the understanding of intra-urban fertility levels in a sub-Saharan African city: (1) despite the near explosion of work on neighborhoods as a spatial unit of analysis, very little of this research has been conducted outside of the richer countries; (2) we characterize neighborhoods on the basis of local knowledge of what we call "vernacular neighborhoods"; (3) we then define what we call "organic neighborhoods" using a new clustering tool-the AMOEBA algorithm-to create these neighborhoods; and then (4) we evaluate and explain which of the neighborhood concepts has the largest measurable contextual effect on an individual woman's reproductive behavior. Multi-level regression analysis suggests that vernacular neighborhoods are more influential on a woman's decision to delay marriage, whereas the organic neighborhoods based on socioeconomic status better capture the factors that shape fertility decisions after marriage.     

Imagining middle powers

Discussions of middle powers in international relations scholarship are hampered by a lack of clarity about what the term ‘middle power’ actually means. This has not stopped increasing numbers of states that cannot claim great power ranking but resist being categorised as small powers imagining middle power status for themselves in regional and global affairs. In an attempt to shed light on middle power imagining, three concepts of middle power are identified. It is contended that one or more of these concepts influences the foreign policies of states ambitious for middle power recognition in regional and global affairs. Identifying which concept, or which combination of concepts, influences a state's middle power imagining may contribute to deeper understandings of the effectiveness, or otherwise, of its foreign policies.     

The Padstow Hobby Horse,etc.

STUDIES IN MAGICAL AMULETS, CHIEFLY GRAECO-EGYPTIAN. By CAMPBELL BONNER. (University of Michigan Studies. Humanistic Series. Vol. XLIX.) Ann Arbor and London, 1950. XXIV, 334 pp., 25 plates. Reviewed by A. A. Barb.

LA TARASQUE. By Louis DUMONT. Gallimard, Paris. 1951. Reviewed by V. Alford.

IONA AND PETER OPIE (Editors). The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, xxviii plus 468 pp., 24 pl. and text illustrations. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 30s. Reviewed by Allan Gomme.

GOTTFRIED HENSSEN, ÜBERLIEFERUNG UND PERSÖNLICHKEIT. Münster, 1951. pp. XI, 236. Reviewed by E. Ettlinger.