Jewish immigration to Palestine in the long 1920s: An exploratory examination

This article aims at filling some gaps in the existing knowledge regarding the quantitative dimensions of Jewish immigration to Mandatory Palestine, particularly during the first decade of British rule. It does so by providing an explorative analysis of the immigration in the long 1920s (1919–32), which is based on a newly constructed micro data set containing rich details of about 45,000 individuals (making up more than 40% of all the registered immigrants in those years). In dwelling on the immigrants' demographic characteristics, labor market skills, and entry categories, the analysis offers tentative answers to some of the questions concerning the comparative nature of Palestine's Jewish immigration at the time, while pointing to other, still unresolved issues awaiting further research.     

Imag(in)ing ‘good’ Swedish meat: gender,sexuality, race and nation in the sale of higher welfare chicken

Abstract

This article attends to the ways that meat from higher welfare chicken is sold in supermarkets in Sweden. Recognising that the ‘welfare-friendly chicken body is an achievement between the market, the animal and publics’, this article continues these discussions to show how gender, sexuality, race and nation operate within these markets and publics by looking at how welfare is marketed in chicken meat sales, particularly higher welfare chicken, compared to other meat. By attending to the images used to sell chicken, we examine how ideas about ‘the farm’ and ‘the family’ are mobilised in the supermarket. Using images of specific families, they position chicken both in the Swedish rural landscape and in intersecting social categories. These two narratives intertwine and operate as a device in the sale of high welfare chicken meat. This, we argue, hides the dependency on global supply chains and workforce, but also (re)produces ideas about what high welfare is, who cares, and how we should care. Throughout the article, we demonstrate how the narratives of farm, family, and nation operate in relation to species and welfare, as the ‘Swedish family farm’ is imag(in)ed to sell high welfare chicken in ways that contrast with meat from other animals.     

Geographic information system‐based evaluation of spatial accessibility to maternal health facilities in Siaya County,Kenya

Maternal mortality is a major problem in middle‐income and low‐income countries, and the availability and accessibility of healthcare facilities offering safe delivery is important in averting maternal deaths. Siaya County, in Kenya, has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country—far more than the national average. This study aimed to evaluate geographic access to health facilities offering delivery services in Siaya County. A mixed‐methods approach incorporating geographic information system analysis and individual data from semi‐structured interviews was used to derive travel time maps to facilities using different travel scenarios: AccessMod5 and ArcGIS were used for these tasks. The derived maps were then linked to georeferenced household survey data in a multilevel logistic regression model in R to predict the probability of expectant women delivering in a health facility. Based on the derived travel times, 26 per cent (13,140) and 67 per cent (32,074) of the estimated 46,332 pregnant women could reach any facility within one and two hours, respectively, while walking with the percentage falling to seven per cent (3,415) and 20 per cent (8,845) when considering referral facilities. Motorised transport significantly increased coverage. The findings revealed that the predicted probability of a pregnant woman delivering in a health facility ranged between 0.14 and 0.86. Significant differences existed in access levels with transportation‐based interventions significantly increasing coverage. The derived maps can help health policy planners identify underserved areas and monitor future reductions in inequalities. This work has theoretical implications for conceptualising healthcare accessibility besides advancing the literature on mixed methodologies.     

Sustainability transformations in the balance: exploring Swedish initiatives challenging the corporate food regime

ABSTRACT

This paper explores to what extent organic initiatives that go beyond mainstream organic (so-called Organic 3.0) can challenge the corporate food regime and how they can push the food system towards sustainability transformations. We depart from the assumption that individual initiatives may differ in their potential to influence the corporate food regime and that this potential can be assessed by examining traits linked to reformist, progressive or radical food regime/food movement trends that they may possess. Rather than establishing a dichotomy between niche and food regime or categorizing Organic 3.0 initiatives within one of these trends, we explore the nuances in niche–regime relationships within the food system from a multi-level perspective, using the cases of two Organic 3.0 initiatives in Sweden. The results show that relations between these initiatives and the food regime share key characteristics, but also differ in important respects. While a reformist strategy facilitates niche growth, progressive and radical approaches are more likely to challenge the regime. The choice of approach in both cases involves trade-offs between growth and organic values. We conclude that one of the primary roles of Organic 3.0 initiatives may be to illustrate the viability of alternative models.     

INVESTIGATING MATERIAL DECAY OF HISTORIC BUILDINGS USING VISUAL ANALYTICS WITH MULTI‐TEMPORAL INFRARED THERMOGRAPHIC DATA

This paper shows how visual analytics methodology can be used to facilitate interpretation of multi‐temporal thermographic imagery for the purpose of restoration of cultural heritage. We explore thermographic data in a visual environment from the unifying spatio‐temporal perspective in an attempt to identify spatial and spatio‐temporal patterns that could provide information about the structure and the level of decay of the material, and the presence of other physical phenomena in the wall. The approach is tested on a thermographic dataset captured on the façade of a Romanesque building from the 13th century—the Cathedral in Matera (Italy).