Experiments with moving children and digital cameras

Discussing an ethnography engaging 7–12-year-olds in digital filming and photography during school journeys in Helsinki, Finland, this article argues for an experimental attitude to participatory visual research with children. Such an attitude is inspired by science and technology studies, and seeks to open space for more situated styles of children's expression and participation by stressing the performative aspects of visual methods and media. Tracing out the unexpected ways in which children embodied digital cameras and shared them with friends, the article claims that experimentation invites researchers and participants alike to explore new modes of relating to one another and everyday practices, thereby drawing out the creative potential of methods and adjusting them better to empirical settings.     

Gender,work and technology in the information workplace: from typewriters to ATMs

We consider the relations between gender and technology in the workplace, focusing on clerical work in the information workplace, especially the finance and insurance sector. Our goal is to excavate a ‘hidden history’ of how clerical work and the artifacts which sustain it have been understood and deployed under different cultural and economic circumstances. We employ an analysis of technosocial relations developed in Science and Technology Studies in which meanings about ‘technology’ and ‘society’ are mutually constitutive, changeable, and in need of maintenance in order to sustain their conceptual coherence. By drawing on examples from the USA and Canada, we argue that at various points over the twentieth century particular office technologies became ‘feminized’, or associated with characteristics coded as feminine, as a means of shaping spatial practice and social relations in the workplace.     

Publicising private lives: celebrities,image control and the reconfiguration of public space

The nature of contemporary celebrity demands the negotiation of publicness and privacy. Given the increasingly intrusive presence of the paparazzi, entertainment media, and fans (from obsessed ‘stalkers’ to well-wishers), celebrities need to regulate but also publicise their ‘front stage’ public persona. While this is usually achieved with a degree of comfort, at certain times their space is threatened. Through a case study of the 2003 court case concerning unsolicited photographs of the wedding of Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas, published in Hello! magazine, this paper examines the policing, staging and legislative defence of celebrity privacy. It is suggested that celebrities' role in public is compromised by their extreme recognisability.     

Some Critical and Methodological Aspects of Shoreline Determination: Examples from the Baltic Sea Region

Coastal shorelines worldwide are generally unstable and changing. The study of the precise relation between any archaeological site and the shoreline at the time when the site was used is therefore complicated, but still often not met with appropriate methodological approaches. In this article, we test models based on phosphate analysis and discuss how they can be used to detect ancient shorelines. We propose that a model of increased and oscillating phosphate values at the former water level is considered reliable and useful in areas with advancing shoreline.     

BALANCED BUDGET MULTIPLIERS FOR SMALL OPEN REGIONS WITHIN A FEDERAL SYSTEM: EVIDENCE FROM THE SCOTTISH VARIABLE RATE OF INCOME TAX

This paper explores the impact on aggregate economic activity in a small, open region of an income tax funded expansion in public consumption that has no direct supply‐side effects. The conventional balanced budget multiplier produces an unambiguously positive macroeconomic stimulus, but the incorporation of negative competitiveness elements, through the operation of the local labor market, renders this positive outcome less certain. Simulation using a single‐region Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model for Scotland demonstrates that the creation of local amenity effects, and the extent to which these are incorporated into local wage bargaining, is central to the analysis.     

Poverty Reduction and Good Governance: Examining the Rationale of the Millennium Development Goals

Whilst the deadline for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) looms large, the outcomes so far have been mixed. This article examines the policy logic that ‘good governance’ leads to poverty reduction, which has been adopted by international agencies in pursuit of the MDGs. This causal relationship is examined through an empirical panel‐data estimation using Worldwide Governance Indicators and the poverty headcount ratio in ninety‐eight countries. The empirical evidence does not support the hypothesis that good governance leads to poverty reduction. Good governance alleviates poverty only in middle‐income countries, not in least developed ones. These findings point to the necessity to devise policies that address poverty directly, rather than through indirect instruments, and highlight the urgent need to address structural inequality in developing countries.