Gorazde: the peacekeepers' tale

This review article of a double CD–ROM focuses on the siege of the Bosnian 'safe area' of Gorazde during the period 1994–5. Overshadowed by the attack and massacre at Srebrenica, the defence of Gorazde has received little mention. This is rectified by Gillian Sandford and Mike Price's CD–ROM, in which British soldiers of the Duke of Wellington's Regiment and the Royal Welch Fusiliers discuss their personal experiences of the siege as well as the nature of their responsibilities as peacekeepers in this 'safe area'. The soldiers discuss their support of the 'safe area' and how they contributed to averting a massacre by defending Gorazde until Bosnian forces were able to defend it themselves.     

Fashioning a City of Culture: ‘life and place changing’ or ‘12 month party’?

The current trend in public policy is to valorise culture as a tool for social, economic and political transformation. This paper offers a direct contribution to debates that seek to unpack and problematise cities of culture. We adopt a more circumspect approach towards some aspects of the anticipated transformative powers of culture, and in particular the tendency to fetishize the economics of culture. Our empiricism is grounded in a detailed study of Derry~Londonderry as the inaugural UK City of Culture in 2013. We question whether City of Culture was ‘life and place changing’ or a ’12 month party’, and reveal different interpretations of success. In our view there is more potential in viewing culture as a peace resource for overcoming divisions in a socially and culturally segregated city, rather than its ability to tackle entrenched economic problems. Moving beyond the specifics of the case study we also provide lessons for future cities of culture and more generalizable insights for the academic and policy literatures.     

Community asset transfer and strategies of local accumulation

Community asset transfer enables local groups to own or manage a government-owned facility and related services. For critics, it is merely an extension of rollback neoliberalism, permitting the state to withdraw from welfare and transfer risk from local government to ill-defined communities. The paper uses quantitative and case-study data from Northern Ireland to demonstrate its transformative potential by challenging the notion of private property rights, enabling communities to accumulate and creating local consumption circuits. It suggests that asset-led social enterprises are entangled in a mix of pro-market and alternative economic strategies which are necessarily traded off each other in the reproduction of social value. There is not an ethically pure form of asset transfer but the tactical adaptation of different modes of working, including the enhancement of state services as well as more independent forms of economic and social organisation. However, the analysis points to the political weaknesses of three specific projects and in particular, the lack of corporate working that has limited their reformist potential. The paper concludes by highlighting the implications for more progressive forms of social economics and the skills, finance and practices that facilitate local accumulation strategies.     

The Progress of Education in the Northern Coalfield Before 1870

Although the literacy of miners lagged behind county and national averages, there was educational progress in the Northern coalfield before 1870. Progress came partly from the private adventure schools and the Sunday schools, which originated in the colliery communities and which have been underestimated by historians. Evidence from parish registers shows that the private adventure schools that proliferated in the collieries, especially from the 1820s, helped to maintain and raise literacy rates in some villages, but were unjustly criticized by educators who favoured state public elementary schools. The colliery Sunday schools, particularly those of the Methodists, were also important in developing the ability to read. The spread of Methodism amongst miners gave an important stimulus to literacy, which resulted in greater support for adult education in the coalfield. The growth of mechanics’ institutes, reading rooms and mutual improvement societies testified to a growing enthusiasm amongst miners for education before 1870. Despite the extraordinary population growth, especially in Durham, and extensive migration of workers in the coal industry, educational progress in the coalfield is evident particularly in the late 1850s and 1860s.     

Desocializing space: the decline of the public realm in Western Sydney1

This paper addresses the public realm and considers its contemporary context in an important Australian region, Western Sydney. Although problematized by social theory in recent years, my base position is the Habermasian premise that a public realm is critical to the healthy functioning of liberal democracies, such as Australia. This paper has three specific aims. First, I note the erosion of the public realm in an important Australian region, Western Sydney, and the obfuscation of its presence and role by new institutional arrangements emerging principally but not exclusively from federal policy settings. I then consider the consequences of this ‘desocialization of space’ for democracy and equity in a socially and culturally diverse urban region such as Western Sydney.

Désocialiser l'espace: le déclin de la sphère publique dans le Western Sydney

espace public, Western Sydney, néolibéralisme

Le présent article s'intéresse à la question de la sphère publique et examine sa condition actuelle à Western Sydney, une région australienne d'une importance capitale. Bien que la théorie sociale l'a récemment remise en cause, je m'appuie sur la prémisse d'Habermas selon laquelle la sphère publique est essentielle pour le bon fonctionnement des démocraties libérales comme celle qui prévaut en Australie. Les trois principaux buts de cet article sont de faire état de l'érosion de la sphère publique dans une des plus importantes régions australiennes qu'est Western Sydney. Je souligne à quel point sa présence et son rôle sont embrouillés par de nouveaux arrangements institutionnels qui naissent surtout mais pas uniquement grâce aux instances politiques fédérales. J'aborde ensuite les conséquences qu'entraînent la «désocialisation de l'espace» pour la démocratie et l'équité dans la vaste mosaïque socioculturelle urbaine de Western Sydney.

La desocialización del espacio: la disminución del terreno público en el oeste de Sydney

espacio público, el oeste de Sydney, el neo-liberalismo

Este papel trata el terreno público y considera su contexto contemporáneo en una región importante de Australia, el oeste de Sydney. Aunque la teoría social lo ha problematizado en recientes años, yo me baso en la premisa de Habermas de que un terreno público es esencial al buen funcionamiento de las democracias liberales, como la de Australia. Este papel tiene tres objetivos específicos. Primero, hablo de la erosión del terreno público en una región importante de Australia, el oeste de Sydney, y de la ofuscación de su presencia y de su papel, causada por nuevos arreglos institucionales que han surgido principalmente, pero no exclusivamente, de la política federal. Luego, considero las consecuencias para la democracia y la igualdad de esta ‘desocialización de espacio’ en una región urbana donde hay gran diversidad cultural y social, como el oeste de Sydney.     

Does Patronage Still Drive Politics for the Rural Poor in the Developing World? A Comparative Perspective from the Livestock Sector

Is the analysis of patron–client networks still important to the understanding of developing country politics or has it now been overtaken by a focus on ‘social capital’? Drawing on seventeen country studies of the political environment for livestock policy in poor countries, this article concludes that although the nature of patronage has changed significantly, it remains highly relevant to the ways peasant interests are treated. Peasant populations were found either to have no clear connection to their political leaders or to be controlled by political clientage. Furthermore, communities ‘free’ of patron–client ties to the centre generally are not better represented by political associations but instead receive fewer benefits from the state. Nonetheless, patterns of clientage are different from what they were forty years ago. First, patronage chains today often have a global reach, through trade, bilateral donor governments and international NGOs. Second, the resources that fuel political clientage today are less monopolistic and less adequate to the task of purchasing peasant political loyalty. Thus the bonds of patronage are less tight than they were historically. Third, it follows from the preceding point and the greater diversity of patrons operating today that elite conflicts are much more likely to create spaces in which peasant interests can eventually be aggregated into autonomous associations with independent political significance in the national polity. NGOs are playing an important role in opening up this political space although at the moment, they most often act like a new type of patron.     

Reviews

The Modern Traveller to the Early Irish Church Kathleen Hughes & Ann Hamlin, 1997 Dublin, Four Courts Press pp. 134, ISBN 1.85182.194.5, £9.95 (pb)

In Search of Columba Lesley Whiteside, 1997 Blackrock, Dublin, Columba Press pp. 136, ISBN 1.8560.7180.4, £5.99 (pb)

A History of the Irish Working Class Peter Beresford Ellis, 1996 London, Pluto Press pp.378, ISBN 0.7453.1103.2, £40.00 (hb); ISBN 0.7453.0009.X, £15.99 (pb)

The Elizabethan Conquest of Ireland John McGurk, 1997 Manchester, Manchester University Press pp. xiii + 290, ISBN 0.7190.4959.8, £45.00 (hb)

Edmund Spenser: A View of the State of Ireland Andrew Hadfield & Willy Maley (eds), 1997 Oxford, Blackwell pp. xxvi +197, ISBN 0.63120.534.9, £35.00 (hb); ISBN 0.63120.535.7, £10.99 (pb)

Inventing and Resisting Britain: Cultural Identities in Britain and Ireland, 1685–1789 Murray Pittock, 1997 London, Macmillan pp.200, ISBN 0.333.65060.3, £42.50 (hb); ISBN 0.333.65061.1, £13.99 (pb)

Linen, Family and Community in Tullylish, County Down, 1690–1914 Marilyn Cohen, 1997 Dublin, Four Courts Press pp. 284, ISBN 1.85182.312.3, £45.00 (hb)

Remembrance and Imagination: Patterns in the Historical and Literary Representation of Ireland in the Nineteenth Century Joep Leerssen, 1996 Cork, Cork University Press in association with Field Day pp. 320, ISBN 1.85918.111.2, £15.95 (pb)

The Historical Dimensions of Irish Catholicism Emmet Larkin, reprint 1997 Washington, The Catholic University of America Press; Dublin, Four Courts Press pp. 138, ISBN 1.85182305.0, £9.95 (pb)

The Kingdom of the Ryans: The Irish in Southwest New South Wales 1816–1890 Malcolm Campbell, 1997 Sydney, University of New South Wales Press pp.210, ISBN 0.86840.191.9, A$34.95 (pb)

’This Dreadful Visitation’: The Famine in Lurgan/Portadown Gerard Mac Atasney, with a foreword by Christine Kinealy, 1997 Belfast, Beyond the Pale Publications pp. 126, ISBN 1.900960.02.8, £6.95 (pb)

A Death‐dealing Famine: The Great Hunger in Ireland Christine Kinealy, 1997 London, Pluto Press pp.200, ISBN 0.7453.1075.3, £40.00 (hb); ISBN 0.7453.1074.5, £12.99 (pb)

Culture, Conflict and Migration: The Irish in Cumbria Donald M. MacRaild, 1998 Liverpool, Liverpool University Press pp.237, ISBN O.85323.652.6, £30.00 (hb); ISBN 0.85323.662.3, £12.95 (pb)

Guns and Chiffon: Women Revolutionaries and Kilmainham Gaol Sinead McCoole, 1996 Dublin, Kilmainham Gaol Museum pp. 70, ISBN 0.7076.3870.4, £5.00 (pb)

Hanna Sheehy Skeffington: A Life Margaret Ward, 1997 Cork, Cork University Press pp.368, ISBN 1.85594.179.1, £45.00 (hb); ISBN 1.85594.187.2, £14.95 (pb)

’They Shall Grow Not Old’: Irish Soldiers and the Great War Myles Dungan, 1997 Dublin, Four Courts Press pp. 218, ISBN 1.85182.347.6, £17.95 (hb)

Rural Ireland, Real Ireland? Jacqueline Genet (ed.), 1996 Gerrard's Cross, Colin Smythe pp.245, ISBN 0.86140.385.1, £28.00 (hb)

Irish Playwrights, 1880–1995: A Resource and Production Sourcebook Beknice Schrank & William W. Demastes (eds), 1997 London, Greenwood Press pp.454, ISBN 0.313.28805.4, £75.95 (hb)

Wilde's Last Stand: Decadence, Conspiracy and the First World War Philip Hoare, 1977 London, Gerald Duckworth pp.256, ISBN 0.71562.737.6, £16.95 (hb); ISBN 0.71562.828.3, £11.95 (pb)

Yeats's Nations: Gender, Class and Irishness Marjorie Howes, 1996 Cambridge, Cambridge University Press pp. 250, ISBN 0.521.56362.3, £35.00 (hb)

Yeats and Women Deirdre Toomey (ed.), 1997 Basingstoke, Macmillan; New York, St. Martin's Press pp.448, ISBN 0.333698.16.9, £19.50 (pb)

James Joyce, Ulysses , and the Construction of Jewish Identity: Culture, Biography, and ‘The Jew’ in Modernist Europe Neil R. Davison, 1996 Cambridge, Cambridge University Press pp.317, ISBN 0.521.55181.1, £35.00 (hb)

Sex, Nation and Dissent in Irish Writing Éibhear Walshe (ed.), 1997 Cork, Cork University Press pp.291, ISBN 1.85918.015.2, £40.00 (hb); ISBN 1.85918.014.0, £16.95 (pb)

Women and Irish Society: A Sociological Reader Anne Byrne & Madeleine Leonard (eds), 1997 Belfast, Beyond the Pale Publications pp. 573, ISBN 1.900960.03.6, £16.95 (pb)

Discrimination and the Irish Community in Britain Mary Hickman & Bronwen Walter, 1997 London, Commission for Racial Equality pp.312, ISBN 1.85442.200.6, £10.00 (pb)

Culture and Policy in Northern Ireland: Anthropology in the Public Arena Hastings Donnan & Graham McFarlane (eds), 1997 Belfast, Institute of Irish Studies pp. 240, ISBN 0.85389.690.9, £9.95 (pb)

Was Ireland Conquered? International Law and the Irish Question Anthony Carty, 1996 London, Pluto Press pp. viii + 203, ISBN 0.7453.0325.0, £40.00 (hb); ISBN 0.7453.0722.1, £12.99 (pb)

Sacrifice of Fools Ian McDonald, 1997 London, Vista pp. 286, ISBN 0.575.60059.4, £5.99 (pb)

Enchanted Journeys: Fifty Years of Irish Writing for Children Robert Dunbar (ed.), 1997 Dublin, O'Brien Press pp. 192, ISBN 0.86278.531.6, £8.99 (hb)

Grace Notes Bernard Mac Laverty, 1997 London, Jonathan Cape pp.278, ISBN 0.224.04429.X, £14.99 (hb); ISBN 0099.77801.7, £5.99 (pb)

The Bridal Suite Matthew Sweeney, 1997 London, Jonathan Cape pp. 49, ISBN 0.224.04328.5, £7.00 (pb)

Verbum et Verbum Micheál Fanning, 1997 Knockeven, Salmon Publishing pp.78, ISBN 1.8976.48898, IR£5.99 (pb)

Mutabilitie Frank McGuinness, 1997 London, Faber & Faber pp. 101, ISBN 0.571.19342.0, £6.99 (pb)

The Boxer Director, Jim Sheridan Universal Studios Inc., 1997

The Butcher Boy Director, Neil Jordan Geffen Pictures, 1997