Image‐Based Modelling from Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Photogrammetry: An Effective,Low‐Cost Tool for Archaeological Applications

The recording and 3D modelling of complex archaeological sites is usually associated with high capital and logistical costs, because the data acquisition must be performed by specialists using expensive surveying sensors (i.e., terrestrial laser scanners, robotic total stations and/or ground‐penetrating radar). This paper presents a novel, low‐cost, user‐friendly photogrammetric tool for generating high‐resolution and scaled 3D models of complex sites. The results obtained with unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) photogrammetry of an archaeological site indicate that this approach is semi‐automatic, inexpensive and effective, and that it guarantees quality.     

THE EFFECT OF ACCESSIBILITY ON PRODUCTIVITY IN SPANISH MANUFACTURING FIRMS

This paper evaluates the impact of accessibility on the productivity of Spanish manufacturing firms. We suggest the use of accessibility indicators of workers and commodities, integrating transport, land use, and individual components, computing real distances or traveling times using the Spanish full road network. Estimated firms’ total factor productivity is explained as a function of the accessibility indicators and additional control variables. Results evidence the crucial role on firms’ productivity to the accessibility of commodities and to a slightly lesser extent the workers.     

Spatial Tactics in Criminal Courts and the Politics of Legal Technicalities

This paper documents court‐imposed bail and sentencing conditions with spatial dimensions, such as red zones, no contact conditions, curfews and prohibitions to demonstrate, issued in the context of criminal proceedings. These conditional orders, which are growing in importance and have a significant impact on the lives of marginalized groups of people, have not received the attention they deserve in the literature. As opposed to better publicized forms of spatial regulation such as legislation or policing strategies, these conditional orders are a distinctive form of spatial tactic that rely on ancient and routinized rules of criminal procedure and the practices of the courts. In order to understand this spatial tactic, and its impact on marginalized people's rights and uses of spaces, we argue that it is necessary to pay attention to the legal rationalities, knowledge and practices that sustain them.     

All Aboard! Travel Films,Railroads, and the North American West, 1897–1910

Beginning with the first travelogues of the late 1890s, the film and tourism industries collaborated both directly and indirectly to shape representations of North America’s western landscape and its people. These non-narrative motion pictures intersected with the rise of mass consumerism, modern tourism, the forces of imperialism and colonialism, as well as industrialized forms of transportation. In particular, railroad travel films from the Canadian Pacific Railway Company and the Northern Pacific Railway Company transformed motion-picture goers into armchair tourists, exposing audiences to the scenic wonders of the West. These transcontinental railroads, themselves products of nation-building initiatives, competed against one another to increase passenger traffic by marketing the sublime and often overlapping landscapes of the American and Canadian Wests as potent nationalist and unifying symbols that heralded each country’s uniqueness.     

Geoarchaeology and spatial distributions of the ‘Coche Quemado' obsidian source in north-western Patagonia

In north-western Patagonia, obsidian was used during the entire Holocene, and its importance increased with time. Recent fieldwork discovered a new obsidian source located in the Río Grande, which was called ‘Coche Quemado' (CQ). The results indicate that the CQ source has a different geochemical signal than all other sources in the region. Its use is spatially restricted to piedmont and, to a lesser extent, the plains. Chronologically, CQ was exploited in the middle and late Holocene, and its use accounts for a range of spatial distribution between 150 and 200 km.     

Chemical and mineralogical characterization of Aguada Portezuelo pottery from Catamarca,north-western Argentina: PIXE,XRD and SEM-EDS studies applied to surface pre- and post-firing paints,slips and pastes

Particle-induced X-ray emission (PIXE), X-ray diffraction (XRD), electron microprobe analysis (EDS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analytical techniques were used to characterize surface paints in pre- and post-fired Aguada Portezuelo decorated pottery. Surface paintings in black, white, red, brown, burgundy and ochre were analysed. Major, minor and trace elements were detected by PIXE, whereas XRD and SEM-EDS gave information on the main mineral phases and the characteristic morphology for each analysed pigment. The results obtained indicate that the main colour groups can be easily discriminated by PIXE, and they are characterized by only one pigment for each colour: hematite (red) and manganese mineral oxides (black), respectively, whereas white pigments are characterized by calcite, ghelenite and gypsum.     

To what extent can online mapping be decolonial? A journey throughout Indigenous cartography in Canada

In this paper, we describe and reflect upon our journey through Indigenous online mapping in Canada. This journey has been planned according to an academic goal: assessing the potential of online cartography for decolonial purposes. To reach this goal, we have followed methodological directions provided by Indigenous scholar Linda Tuhiwai Smith to review 18 Indigenous web-mapping sites across Canada. Supported by a series of ten interviews, this content analysis enabled us to sketch some of the contours of contemporary Indigenous cartography. On one hand, Indigenous communities largely control the data that are shared on these websites. They also partially control the way these data are represented through the mobilization of digital storytelling technologies that are better aligned with Indigenous ways of envisioning relationships to places than conventional maps. On the other hand, they do not have much control over the technological aspects of these projects, for which they remain heavily dependent on non-Indigenous partners. Throughout this journey, we noticed that women's voices remained marginal in most of these mapping projects, but we also identified evidence supporting the idea that these voices are starting to play a vital role in the on-going effort of decolonizing mapping processes.     

Memories of an Imperial City: Race,Gender, and Birmingham,Alabama

September 15, 2013, marked the 50^th anniversary of the 16^th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. The bombing remains one of the most infamous events in the history of white supremacist violence in the United States. While conventional accounts of the event and its aftermath often consider the legal restructuring of the US state following the passage of subsequent Civil Rights legislation, little has been written about the transnational significance of Birmingham in shaping the character of US power abroad. This article argues that memorialisation and cultural architecture of Birmingham represent a significant crucible forging a particular style of liberal empire. Tracing a cultural genealogy of Birmingham through the writings of former Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and famed scholar-activist Angela Davis, I demonstrate how Birmingham, as a site of historic black struggle, has been remembered alongside the place-making of empire.