Assessing the preservation potential of temperate,lowland alluvial sediments using airborne lidar intensity

Archaeological applications of airborne lidar topographic data are now well established and documented. However, less well explored by archaeologists and palaeoenvironmentalists are the potential applications of lidar intensity data. Here we explore this potential to remotely determine the differential preservation potential of valley floor sediments, within a temperate, lowland environment, especially where preserved within palaeochannels. We compare airborne lidar intensity data with simultaneously collected terrestrial records of sediment organic content, moisture and stratigraphy. Results suggest that while a correlation exists between lidar intensity values and sediment properties, it is neither linear nor robustly predictable. Nevertheless it is suggested that examination of lidar intensity data serve a useful purpose when assessing valley floor alluvial sediments.     

DECOLONIZING THE PRODUCTION OF GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGES? REFLECTIONS ON RESEARCH WITH INDIGENOUS MUSICIANS

ABSTRACT. This paper contributes to debates on decolonizing geography, by reflecting on the ethical and political considerations involved in research on indigenous music in Australia. The research collaboration involved two non-indigenous researchers—an academic geographer and a music educator—engaging with indigenous music and musicians in a number of ways. The paper reflects on these engagements, and draws attention to a series of key binaries and boundaries that were highlighted and unsettled: 'outsider/insider'; 'traditional/contemporary'; 'authenticity/inauthenticity'. It also discusses the politics of publishing and draws attention to the ways in which the objects of our work—in this case a book—influence decisions about representation, subject matter, and interpretations of speaking positions. Rather than seeking validation for attempts to 'speak for' or 'speak to' indigenous musical perspectives, contemporary Aboriginality was understood as a field of intersubjective relations where multiple voices, representations and interventions are made. I discuss some ways in which the authors sought to situate their own musical, and geographical, knowledges in this problematic, and inherently political, research context.     

Cultural policy as mythical narrative

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we argue that policy assumptions are shaped by mythical narratives carrying underlying beliefs and values. Drawing on narrative studies, organisational theory and Gramsci’s cultural hegemony theory, we examine how sense-making narratives create consensus, how they imply causation and individual agency, and finally how narratives fragment to reveal alternatives to hegemonic ‘common sense’ assumptions. Applying this framework to cultural policy we examine the place of mythic, sense-making narratives in the historical development of foundational national cultural policies in the UK and Mexico – respectively, narratives of ‘the civilising mission’ and ‘social transformation’. We then consider narrative emplotment and individualisation underpinning assumptions about individual creativity in the UK creative industries policy. Finally, we address the postmodern turn in narrative studies, showing how fragmented, polysemous narratives fracture cultural policy into ‘personalised truths’ and give voice to other, counter-hegemonic perspectives. We conclude by proposing an agenda for narrative research in cultural policy.     

People,possessions and domestic space in the late medieval escheators’ records

ABSTRACT

The medieval English escheator was a royal official who seized the goods and chattels of felons, fugitives and outlaws for the crown’s benefit. This article uses escheators’ inquests and accounts to ask what information exists about the location of forfeited possessions at the point of their appraisal by the escheator, and what is revealed about the use of space in the houses and outbuildings of lower status people? We also ask more general questions about contemporary understanding of the relationship between domestic objects and space. We find that there was limited interest in describing possessions according to their position within buildings. Nonetheless, one may use the order of items as they are recorded in the escheators’ lists of forfeited goods to explore the issues raised in the article. The records reveal an emphasis on the difference between ‘household utensils’ and other movables, especially crops and livestock.