Changing views in Canadian geomorphology: are we seeing the landscape for the processes?

Geomorphology in Canada, as elsewhere, has evolved into an essentially bipartite discipline focusing either on ‘process’ or broader ‘historical’ (Quaternary) landscape interpretation. A growing emphasis on process‐oriented research that relies increasingly on instrumentation and computational technologies has occurred. Critics of such research note limited applicability for landscape evolution, fashionability of methods and limited societal relevance. Indeed, some say we are not seeing the landscape for the processes. This article discusses the changing nature of geomorphology since the Quantitative Revolution of the 1950s including new advances, recent trends and challenges. Publication trends and recent advances suggest that the discipline is very healthy (following a slump in the early 1990s) and continues to evolve, which may reflect increasing research infrastructure and/or funding opportunities and new publications spotlighting Canadian research. Unfortunately, fundamental (less applied) research is threatened by funding program shifts, changing institutional pressures and a decline in research capacity from retirement attrition, and student recruitment challenges. Three research priorities are recommended: (1) continued fundamental research, (2) more integrated modelling to link micro scale processes to macro scale landform behaviour and (3) improvements in profiling our discipline amongst students and related professionals.     

The transformation of diplomacy: mysteries, insurgencies and public relations

There has recently been a resurgence of interest in the art of diplomacy, fuelled by the growing popularity of the idea of 'soft power'. This article reviews three books key to this revival, all of which argue that a transformed and revitalized diplomacy can and should play a positive role in international politics. One calls for diplomats to overcome their traditional reserve and become 'guerrillas' fighting for human security, peace and development; another for a broader and deeper engagement with 'public diplomacy'—the practice of speaking to foreign peoples rather than just foreign sovereigns. The last favours a return to inherited diplomatic wisdom now half-forgotten. While welcoming this renewed concern for diplomacy, this review article argues that its place in contemporary international politics is perhaps less secure than the works reviewed allow. The 'management of legitimacy'—the central task of diplomats—is a much more difficult task than is often acknowledged.     

Did the 1996 Federal Election See a Blue-collar Revolt against Labor? A Queensland Case-study

In the immediate wake of the 1996 Australian federal elections pundits variously attributed the ALP's defeat to the loss of its 'heartlands', to the party's failure in government to retain the support of 'battlers', or even to the collapse of Labor's traditional blue-collar 'core' constituency. Using Queensland as a case-study, and drawing on aggregate as well as survey data, this research note provides support for claims that Labor's traditional support base deserted it in 1996.     

GEOGRAPHY OF GENDER ECONOMIC STATUS IN URBAN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA: GHANA, 1960–1984

The economic status of men and women in urban Sub-Saharan Africa has been a central research theme by anthropologists, sociologists, and political scientists over the last two decades. Most of this research, although of high quality, has not paid attention to direct comparisons of the economic status of the two genders in urban places in the region. Added to this, only the active or market-oriented population in towns of the region have been studied. Most research on urban gender economic status has been on limited areal scales, and has been couched within the formal-informal-sector framework, resulting in a piecemeal understanding of the total urban economy in the region. This paper provides a geographical and historical framework for interpreting and assessing research on gender economic status in Sub-Saharan Africa, using the Ghanaian urban system as a case study. Au cours des deux dernières décennies, dans les domaines de l'anthropologie, de la sociologie et des sciences politiques, un grand nombre de recherches ont porté sur le statut économique des hommes et des femmes dans l'Afrique urbaine subsaharienne. Bien que ces recherches soient d'une très haute qualité, la majorité d'entre elles ne font aucune comparaison directe entre les différences entre le statut économique des hommes et celui des femmes dans les milieux urbains. De plus, ces études ne portent que sur les populations actives ou sur les personnes qui participent à l'économie de marché dans les villes de la région qu'on étudie. La plupart des recherches sur le statut économique des deux sexes dans les milieux urbains se rapportent à des espaces délimités et à des moments particuliers (sans considérer les changements qui surviennent pendant une période de temps plus étendue). De plus, ces études sont formulées dans un cadre sectoriel formel-informel, ce qui a abouti à une compréhension fragmentée de l'ensemble de l'économie urbaine de la région. Cet article se base sur l'étude de cas d'un système urbain ghanéen pour fournir un cadre géographique et historique qui servira de base d'interprétation et d'évaluation des recherches portant sur le statut économique des deux sexes en Afrique subsaharienne.