Geo-centric education and anti-imperialism: theosophy, geography and citizenship in the writings of J. H. Cousins

While much has been written of the complicity of geography with British Imperialism and projects of the nation state, the focus of this paper is the educational writings of James H. Cousins who advocated geography as a source of ordered knowledge, mystic insight, and resistance to imperialism. Cousins' formulation of nationhood in his writing on national education, his scheme of geographical education and his concern of ideal citizenship are discussed in order to explore his attempt to develop a Theosophical geographical imagination of non-hierarchical difference and global spiritual unity.     

Local Control Wasting Away

Municipal solid waste management and planning traditionally have been regarded as the responsibility of local government. However, the legal climate surrounding solid waste management has become more constrained, placing local government at the mercy of the private waste management industry, and eroding the effectiveness of local waste planning efforts. This article provides an overview of recent court decisions impacting local government solid waste management. It also discusses current congressional activity relating to interstate waste transport and flow control, and assesses the potential effects of such legislation on public solid waste management and on privatization issues raised by critics of local control.     

An investigation of the fractal properties of flint microwear images

This paper reports on an investigation into the fractal dimensions of flint microwear images which has been carried out in an attempt to resolve the existing controversy over the possibility of identifying microwear types from visual inspection of high magnification images, and describes a new method for flint microwear image analysis based on fractal geometry. Fractal dimensions of surface images, which are known to relate well to human visual perception of roughness, have been computed for various types of microwear. No significant correlations have been found between the fractal properties of the digital flint images and the contacted materials.     

MANDATING AS A POLICY ISSUE – THE DEFINITIONAL PROBLEM*

Mandating of state policies by agencies of the federal government and of local government policies by both state and federal agencies has emerged in recent years as an important policy issue. This conceptualization of mandating behavior offers a typology based upon (1) substantive aspects of the mandate; (2) the method by which a mandate is imposed; and (3) the mode of application. Problems associated with different types of mandates suggest multidimensional effects of intergovernmental relations on state and local policy formulation and Implementation.     

“Random” hunting and the composition of faunal samples from archaeological excavations: A modern example from New Zealand

The ability of analyses of the age- and sex-composition of faunal samples from archaeological excavations to permit reliable inferences concerning prehistoric culling practices and, in particular, to distinguish between wild and domesticated animals is investigated by examining the demographic composition of 14 groups of red deer (Cervus elaphus) shot at random from a helicopter in the Southern Alps of New Zealand in early 1975. It is concluded that such “random” hunting can produce samples of bones that are apparently biased with respect to age and/or sex. The implications of these findings for prehistoric studies are discussed briefly with particular reference to the exploitation of red deer in Italy and Switzerland, and greater caution in excavating and analysing faunal samples is urged.     

Contesting Identity: Politics of gays and lesbians in Toronto in the 1970s: Identidad en Conflicto: políticas de gays y lesbianas en Toronto en los años 1970

This article explores a particular moment in the history of Toronto's gay movement politics when the movements' ideological perspectives on the nature of gay and lesbian identities and associated spaces shifted dramatically from the so-called liberationist stance of the mid-1970s to the so-called ethnic minority approach of the late 1970s. This occurred within the context of a particular series of events that prompted gay activists to rework their conceptualization of gay and lesbian identity in order to be recognized as legitimate participants in certain pivotal, public proceedings. Far from being a well-thought-out and deliberate shift in political strategy, the ‘minority’ argument was, in many ways, a reflexive and unexamined response to unanticipated circumstances. Toronto's gay activists, in representing gays and lesbians as a minority fundamentally altered meanings associated with both gay and lesbian identities and with the spaces dominated or controlled by gay and lesbian interests.

Este artículo explora un momento particular en la historia de las políticas del movimiento de los gays de Toronto cuando sus perspectivas ideológicas sobre la naturaleza de identidades gay y lesbiana y sus espacios respectivos cambiaron dramáticamente, desde la llamada ‘perceptiva liberacionista’ de los mediados de los años setenta hasta la llamada ‘perspectiva de las minorías étnica’ de los últimos años de los setentas. Esta cambio ocurrió dentro del contexto de una serie particular de eventos que incitaron a los activistas gay a revisar sus conceptualizaciónes sobre su identidad gay y lesbiana con el fin de ser reconocidos como participantes legítimos en ciertos procesos públicos. Lejos de ser un cambio bien planeado y deliberado en la estrategia política, el argumento de la ‘minoría’ consistía, de varios maneras, en una repuesta no reflexiva no examinada a circunstancias inesperadas. Los activistas gay de Toronto, al representar a los gays y lesbianas como minorías, alteraron de manera fundamental los significados asociados tanto a las identidades de gays y lesbianas como los espacios dominados o controlados por intereses de gays y lesbianas.     

Ways of Seeing Early Modern Decorative Textiles

Abstract

The article introduces and contextualises this special issue on ‘Ways of Seeing Early Modern Decorative Textiles’, which comprises a series of essays that draw on the activities, research findings and insights of an Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded research network, ‘Ways of Seeing the English Domestic Interior, 1500–1700: The Case of Decorative Textiles’. Critically evaluating the results of the network’s findings, the paper situates them within a broader investigation of the role of decorative textiles in shaping the experience of domestic interiors in the past and present, and explores new ways of reading such objects in the context of the household. It examines the historiography and current range of approaches to the study, interpretation and exhibition of historic textiles, and analyses the insights offered by bringing together different disciplinary and professional perspectives. It argues for the key significance of these textiles for both historical and modern perceptions of the domestic interior and for the importance of collaborative, cross-disciplinary approaches to researching them in order to understand how they functioned in the early modern period and to inform new directions for their display and presentation in the present.