Reconceptualizing Dialogue in Environmental Public Participation

In this article we argue that the attempt to overcome technical dominance with democratic procedures has reduced communication to fair procedural rules that do not fully recognize the rhetorical functions of dialogue. The meaning generation process, although important, is not sufficiently accounted for in current participation theories and models. Here, we use Mikhail Bakhtin's dialogic perspective to explore a "sense-making" discourse that includes embracing differences, generating new meanings, and engaging in an open-ended dialogue. This mode of discourse works to construct understanding through a multi-voiced, ongoing struggle among perspectives. It intermingles with a problem-solving discourse focused on developing agreement among disparate views within democratic processes. These types of discourse have differing, yet complimentary goals and we see them as alternating throughout public participation to encourage long-term interaction and relationship building. We highlight techniques that illustrate some ways of encouraging a sense-making discourse and touch upon several lessons they provide for implementing this type of discourse within democratic models.     

The Problem of Evil in Sand's La Mare au diable and Carl Jung,The Ideology of Sentiment

My thesis insists on the theme of evil implicit in Sand's title to her pastoral novel, La Mare au diable (1846). The question of evil as death (le mal métaphysique) stands out in her preface, opens her novel, and defines the challenge faced by the hero in social prejudice (le mal social) and in the heroic journey to overcome internalized obstacles such as fear (le mal psychologique) in order to transform his values. The interplay between good and evil culminating in “the devil's pond” intuits Jung's theory of the convergence of good and evil and the necessity of the latter in the maturation process. The victory of the hero, Germain, is also that of Sand who rises above the ideological partisanship of her opening chapters to bring to life inspirational values open to all.     

The royal society: National committee for geography

The Geomorphology of the British Isles series: Ireland. By G. L. H. Davies and N. Stephens. 21 × 14, 250 pp. Methuen, 1978. £7.95.

Causes of Climate by J. G. Lockwood. 24 × 16, 10 + 260 pp. 22 photos, 102 diagrams, 34 tables, index (to text only), glossary. Edward Arnold, 1979. £5.95.

Humanistic Geography: Prospects and Problems. Edited by David Ley and Marwyn Samuels, i‐viii. 23 × 16, 337 pp. Croom Helm, London, 1978. £11.95.

South America. By Arthur Morris. 25 × 19, 271 pp., 59 maps and diagrams, 43 plates, appendices, bibliography, index. Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1979. Paper, £5.45.

The Fur Trade of the American West, 1807–1840. By D. J. Wishart. 22.5 x 14.5, 237 pp. Illustrations, references, bibliography, index. Croom Helm, London, 1979. £12.95.

Outlook Geography: Worldscapes. A. Ayres et al. 25 × 19, 136 pp. Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, 1978. £2.45.

The Changing Geography of Britain. By W. E. Marsden. 25 × 19, 196 pp. Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, 1978. £2.50.     

How much heterogeneity can the welfare state endure? The influence of heterogeneity on attitudes to the welfare state

Cultural and economic heterogeneity is often seen as a major threat to modern welfare states. This article contributes to the discussion of how much heterogeneity the welfare state can endure by theoretically and empirically focusing on the relationship between different levels of national identity and the support for welfare state policies. We analyse the effect of different types of national identity on attitudes towards taxation and redistribution. We show that it is the subjective aspect of national identity, or social cohesion, that in fact matters for predicting attitudes to the welfare state. In comparison, more objective measures of heterogeneity like the inequality of income distribution, language fractionalisation or the percentage of foreign‐born individuals do not have any effect on attitudes to the welfare state.     

Regionalism in Central Asia: New Geopolitics, Old Regional Order

Behind the rhetoric of regional cooperation, the Central Asian states have been embroiled with increasing frequency in conflicts among themselves, including trade wars, border disputes and disagreements over the management and use of water and energy resources. Far from engendering a new regional order in Central Asia, the events of September 11, 2001 and the subsequent basing of US troops in the region have served to entrench pre-existing patterns of regional cooperation, while highlighting the obstacles that have beset the regionalization process there since the mid-1990s. While all five Central Asian states have been attempting to use the renewed rivalry between Russia and the United States, which is being played out in the Central Asian region, to maximize their strategic and economic benefits, the formation of the United States–Uzbekistan strategic partnership has increased the resolve of the other Central Asian states (Turkmenistan excepted) to balance Uzbekistan's preponderance by enthusiastically pursuing regional projects involving Russia and, to a lesser extent, China. This regional dynamic has resulted in the steady gravitation of the centre of regionalism in Central Asia to the north from a nominal Tashkent–Astana axis to a more stable Astana–Moscow one, with possible repercussions for the poorer states of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. The article examines the major constraints on regionalism in Central Asia, considering in particular the ways in which the personalist, non-democratic regimes of Central Asia have obstructed state–centric 'top–down' regionalism as well as informal regionalist processes 'from below'.     

Das DLR: Hoch hinaus und bodenständig

Das Deutsche Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. (DLR), wird vielfach, sicherlich im wesentlichen durch seine Namensgebung begründet, nur mit „h?heren Zielen” in Verbindung gebracht; sei es durch die D2-Space-Shuttle-Mission oder das Deutsche Fernerkundungsdatenzentrum (DFD) des DLR in Oberpfaffenhofen. Bei letzterem kann man sich den Einsatz von Geographen gut vorstellen. Die „irdische” Komponente des DLR, die wenig oder keine Verbindungen zur Luft- und Raumfahrt aufweist, bietet aber durchaus ebenso Besch?ftigungsm?glichkeiten für unsere Zunft, wie das Beispiel von Dipl.-Geogr. Annette Bona unterstreicht, die als Projektmanagerin in der Organisationseinheit „Innovationsmanagement und Technologiemarketing” am K?lner Standort besch?ftigt ist. Mit ihr unterhielt sich J?rg Franzen M. A. über die weniger bekannten, bodengebundenen T?tigkeiten des DLR und ihren spezifischen Anteil daran.     

Abbott’s ‘budget crisis’, CALD women’s loss? Service providers explore the impact of funding cuts

Women have been disproportionately affected by funding cuts to services following the 2008 global financial crisis. Using a feminist intersectional analysis of austerity measures applied to family violence (FV) services in Victoria, Australia, including 11 service provider interviews, we find that: the Australian government drew on global narratives of austerity in constructing a ‘budget crisis’, with subsequent cuts to funds addressing FV; budget cuts negatively impacted services’ abilities to address the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) women; there is a lack of qualified interpreters and multilingual services, and; there are missed opportunities to engage and support young CALD people in FV services. Policy recommendations to support FV services and their abilities to help CALD women and young people are provided.     

The Ins and Outs of Death in the Iron Age: Complex Funerary Treatments at Broxmouth Hillfort,East Lothian

Evidence for Iron Age funerary treatments remains sporadic across Britain and formal cemeteries are especially elusive. One important exception is Broxmouth hillfort, East Lothian, excavated during the late 1970s but not yet published. New analysis of the human remains from Broxmouth provides evidence for three distinct populations: a formal cemetery outside the hillfort, isolated graves within the ramparts, and a scatter of disarticulated fragments from a range of domestic and midden contexts. The latter group in particular provides significant evidence for violent trauma; isotopic evidence suggests that they may be the remains of outsiders. Together the human remains shed light on complex and changing attitudes to death and the human body in Iron Age Britain. The material from Broxmouth is considered in the light of emerging evidence for fluid and pluralistic treatments of the dead in the Iron Age of south‐east Scotland.