DEVELOPMENTS IN EQUID HARNESSING AND DRAUGHT IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND HAN CHINA: INDEPENDENT OR INTERCONNECTED?

The interconnectedness of the ancient European, Eurasian and Chinese worlds is not doubted, but just what was exchanged and how the transmission of ideas took place is a question very much under investigation. This paper examines peculiarities of equid harnessing and draught across this vast area as a case in point to consider such issues as diffusion and independent invention, especially in relation to the emergence of single draught vehicles.     

Organic Public Geographies: “Making the Connection”

Abstract: A new field of “public geographies” is taking shape ( Fuller 2008 ) in geography's mainstream journals. While much is “traditional”, with intellectuals disseminating academic research via non‐ academic outlets ( Castree 2006 ; Mitchell 2008 ; Oslender 2007 ), less visible is the “organic” work and its “more involved intellectualizing, pursued through working with area‐based or single‐interest groups, in which the process itself may be the outcome” ( Ward 2006 :499; see Fuller and Askins 2010 ). A number of well‐known projects exist where research has been “done not merely for the people we write about but with them” ( Gregory 2005 :188; see also Cahill 2004 ; Johnston and Pratt 2010 ). However, collaborative writing of academic publications which gives research participants authorial credit is unusual ( mrs kinpainsby 2008 ; although see Sangtin Writers and Nagar 2006 ). This paper is about an organic public geographies project called “Making the connection”. It is written by a diverse collection of (non‐)academic participants who contributed to the project before it had started, as it was undertaken, and/or after it had finished. This is a “messy”, process‐oriented text ( Cook et al. 2007 ) working through the threads (partially) connecting the activities of its main collaborators, including a referee who helped get the paper to publication.     

They would if they could: class, gender, and popular representation of English divorce litigation, 1858-1908

A systematic sample of the petitions presented to the English Divorce Court from 1858 through 1908 makes it possible to assess the differential contribution of discrete social and economic subgroups to the litigation the Court oversaw. An examination of four of these -- the titled aristocracy, those employed in the theater, those in receipt of financial aid, and laborers -- shows that English divorce litigants exhibited a broader social profile than commonly attributed to it by the newspaper coverage of divorce litigation, which gave a skewed impression of its social profile. Analysis of these cases underscores the gendered, class, and geographically inflected demand for divorce in a judicial setting that imposed severe restrictions on access to divorce as a remedy for marital breakdown.     

Farming in the troposphere: drawing together affective atmospheres and elemental geographies

This paper focuses on the much-neglected contribution of weather to research encounters. Affective atmospheres and elemental geographies are used as a platform to examine the vibrant materialities of the troposphere. The weather encapsulates human and non-human bodies, moods and actions in an enveloping space and I trace how these materialities and immaterialities are transmitted between bodies in the research setting. In a (post)phenomenological sense, certain atmospheric and meteorological events figure as lively participants. Through three research moments with farmers, I discuss how various weather conditions such as a warm balmy spring, wet muddy winter and the suffocating heat of summer enables thinking on the relational weight of atmospheres. By following participants throughout the circadian rhythms of farming over a year, seasonal fluctuations were recorded. Thus, researcher effort to comprehend how bodies become attuned and sensitive to the causal powers of the troposphere is foregrounded within share-farming experiences.     

Re-naturalizing sugar: Narratives of place,production and consumption

This article analyses the inter-relationships among food consumption practices, marketers' representations of sugar, and the history and political economy of sugar production. It focuses on the 'supermarket narratives'--stories regarding place and production that appear on commodity packaging--used to market sugar in the USA. It explores how competition within the sweetener industry, as shaped by the material qualities of sweeteners, has given rise to supermarket narratives that seek to differentiate sugars on the basis of ideas of place, freshness and environmental sustainability. It also examines how, at the same time, sweetener users have co-operated to maintain and increase consumption in the USA. The article begins with a discussion of historical patterns of sweetener consumption in the USA, and then looks at the genesis of the primary sugar industry lobbying organization. The case study of Florida sugar producers is used to demonstrate the historical antecedents of supermarket narratives and the contemporary geographical specificity of the political economy underlying supermarket narratives.