Feminist geography in the UK: the dialectics of women-gender-feminism-intersectionality and praxis

Abstract

Feminist praxis has always been about both the individual and the collective; one of the revolutionary and utopian promises of feminism is that of being, bringing, and working together. This piece provides a brief account of some of the significant scholarship and collective activities within British feminist geography over the last twenty five years, with a particular focus on the work of the Women and Geography Study Group/Gender and Feminist Geographies Research Group. We underscore the importance of intersectional approaches to scholarship and praxis in UK feminist geographies in this period, and in going forward, as well as signalling some of the dialectical opportunities and tensions arising from this approach.     

Ecological changes induced by prehistoric man at pitstone,buckinghamshire

This paper describes the study of a buried palaeosol of post-glacial age stratified between a periglacial coombe rock and a ploughwash deposit. Soil analysis (lithology and mineralogy) and molluscan analysis demonstrate a sequence of woodland, woodland clearance, and tillage. Radiocarbon assay of charcoal from the buried soil gave a date of 1960±220 bc which may date the clearance phase. The soil profile is part of a palaeocatena, the Mollusca from a drier phase of which have been published in an earlier paper. It has therefore been possible to check the relationship of the molluscan assemblages to the buried soil types and it is shown that both the morphology of the palaeosol and the composition of the fauna vary according to their position on the buried landscape.     

The Fortifications of Hull between 1321 and 1864

As one of the most important ports on the east coast of England, Hull had a major strategic role as a supply base for English armies, particularly in their campaigns against Scotland. Consequently, its defence was a major consideration for the English Crown. The medieval and later town defences of Hull were amongst the strongest in Yorkshire. From 1321-4 until 1776 the town was surrounded on three sides by a substantial Town Ditch and bank, later fronted by a circuit of brick walls incorporating numerous gates and towers; the fourth side, opening onto the River Hull and the town’s waterfronts, was protected by a boom chain slung across the entrance to the river. This paper summarizes the historical and archaeological evidence not only for the defences on the west bank of the River Hull, surrounding the Old Town, but also the better-known Henrician and Stuart military defences on the east bank of the river.     

Pollen and land-snail analysis of calcareous soils

Recently, pollen analyses have been undertaken on a number of soil profiles, mostly Neolithic land surfaces on the Chalk, which have been investigated by molluscan analysis. The two methods often give discrepant conclusions. For instance, the molluscs at Windmill Hill suggested woodland whereas the pollen indicated farmland. A number of such cases are considered, and explanations put forward for some of them. The different nature of pollen grains and snail shells may be reflected in their persistence in the soil, pollen being ephemeral (and therefore more or less co-eval) in these base-rich soils, whilst shells may be more persistent. The two methods, therefore, could be reflecting different phases of ecological history, with the pollen reflecting the latest—and perhaps transient—phase.     

Crop marks and soils at two archaeological sites in Britain

The factors which create crop marks at two archaeological sites, at Glenlochar, Kirkcudbrightshire and at Fisherwick, Staffordshire, are examined in some detail. Marks are best recorded at these places in cereals and show earliest over the shallowest soils. They appear when the potential soil moisture deficit, which occurs when water transpired by a crop exceeds rainfall, is greater than the amount of water in the soil available to the plant. Marks only show in grassland when the deficit is about 40 mm more than that calculated for cereals. Marks also appear in very wet years, but are fainter than those caused by a moisture deficit, and are probably caused by waterlogging in the soil. At both sites the soils are moderately stony and shallow over terrace sands and gravels, except for soils in infilled ditches over which crop growth is better.