Being observant and observed: embodied citizenship training in the Home Guard and the Boy Scout Movement, 1907–1945

Building upon recent studies by geographers and social scientists on the everyday practices of (scientific) observation, this paper focuses on the role of two distinct, yet similar organisations that held observation as an essential and ‘automatic’ embodied skill. Utilising the examples of Home Guard camouflage and the Boy Scout Movement, the paper critically examines how these organisations sought to articulate the individual as both observer and observed, thereby exposing a much more complex entanglement of different visual positions and practices hitherto neglected in studies of observation. Moreover, the paper emphasises the importance of the act of ‘not-being-seen’ as a complementary and fundamental aspect of (non-)observational practice, accentuated and promoted by civic institutions in terms of duty and responsibility. Finally, the paper considers the evolutionary aspects of observation through the lifecourse, revealing a complex, relational geography of expertise, experience and skill that crossed age-distinctions.     

Jeremiah's new covenant: Jer 31, 31-34

Abstract

Old Testament texts are proof of how, for centuries, the attitude of the people towards the nations was a matter of debate.

This controversy, which is disputed in the context of diverse subjects, is even debated within the texts by different redactors. His evident that the background of the debate is not so much theological as social in nature

Neither particularists nor universalists could establish a natural relationship with people of the nations. Such a relationship is perceived only here and there between the lines where the focus is on everyday life

The debate between the advocates of particularism and those of universalism continues in the early Christian church     

Voter migration as a source of electoral change in the Rocky Mountain West

Examining county-level voting patterns since 1992, this paper describes the rising strength of the Democratic Party in the Rocky Mountain West and explores domestic migration (voter mobility) as a cause of the electoral change. Other theories of electoral change (voter conversion, voter mobilization and generational replacement) are analyzed and found less significant than a voter migration theory. A spatial autoregressive model also presents evidence of significant contextual “neighborhood effects” contributing to electoral change in the region. Relying on IRS tax-filer migration data, Census data and voting results for all Western counties since 1992, this work finds a significant correlation between growing Democratic strength and in-migration of new voters who generally hail from more Democratic environments than the Western counties into which they are emigrating. The strongest correlations emerge in counties where the share of creative class occupations is also growing quickly. Migrating voters are building a new Western community – a community of creative classes, childless households and urban professionals who are more likely to vote Democrat than the rural conservatives they are increasingly outnumbering.     

Investigating Isotopic Niche Space: Using rKIN for Stable Isotope Studies in Archaeology

Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory - Archaeological applications of stable isotope data have become increasingly prevalent, and the use of these data continues to expand rapidly....