Governmentality and the Spatialized Discourse of Policy: The Consolidation of the Post-1989 NHS Reforms

There have been few studies of spatialized discourse within contemporary healthcare policy-making. This paper addresses this omission, focusing on the governmental presentation of the little-studied measures that consolidated the post-1989 reforms of the NHS in England and Wales, and culminated in the Health Authorities Act 1995. A short section places these measures in context and outlines their main components. An analysis of key documents and parliamentary exchanges is then used to show how spatialized language was central to the presentation of policy and its debate in parliament. In particular, the paper demonstrates how nuanced conceptions of space- and territorially-led service management provide a flexible basis for presenting notions of power and control. This 'spatio-linguistic strategy' is located theoretically within the concept of governmentality.     

An analytical study, using inductively coupled plasma (ICP) spectrometry, of samian and colour-coated wares from the Roman town at Colchester together with related continental samian wares

Over 200 sherds of samian and colour-coated pottery of late 2nd or early 3rd century date have been analysed by inductively coupled plasma (ICP) emission spectrometry. Most of this material was excavated at Colchester, England; the remainder is related East Gaulish material. Some clay samples were also analysed. The material divides, after multivariate statistical analysis, into 11 clusters. These accord well with known archaeological evidence and suggest assignments of origin where these are uncertain. In particular, the archaeological evidence for a link between Colchester and the Sinzig potters is supported.     

Al-Qaeda terrorism in the Sahara? Edwin Dyer's murder and the role of intelligence agencies

In this article, Jeremy Keenan analyses the recent spate of 'westerners' taken hostage in the Sahara, reportedly by Al-Qaeda of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). The article, drawing on Keenan's earlier analyses of some three dozen hostage-takings in the region since the launch of the US 'War on terror' in the region in 2003, raises questions about the extent to which AQIM is associated with the Algerian and other regional intelligence services; the extent to which western intelligence services have been compromised by their wider geo-political and commercial interests and their attempts to manipulate AQIM; and the ethical dilemmas facing anthropologists working in such regions as to how they should position themselves in the interface between anthropology and intelligence.     

Ida Vera Simonton's Imperial Masquerades: Intersections of Gender,Race and African Expertise in Progressive‐Era America

Ida Vera Simonton, a New York socialite, visited the French colony of Gabon in 1906 and 1907. Her subsequent narratives about her stay demonstrate a very ambiguous view of the horrors of European colonialism that she claimed to despise and the amoral nature of Africans. Simonton ultimately employed her stay in Gabon to claim a right to form female self‐defence squads in New York and to act as an independent defender of white women. By carefully shaping her public persona to alternately appropriate discourses of masculine regeneration through empire and to highlight her female vulnerability, she made herself into a provocative spectacle. In an ironic twist, given how much Simonton embellished on her own experiences, Broadway producers in 1925 plagiarised her 1912 novel Hell's Playground in their successful play White Cargo. Simonton successfully sued for damages, thus upholding her highly edited version of her trip in law. Her writings expose the intersections of racial anxieties, gendered visions of empire and feminist aspirations in the United States during the Progressive era.     

Strong Bar,Weak State? Lawyers,Liberalism and State Formation in Zambia

Members of the legal profession exercise potent, though largely hidden, influence on political processes in modern societies. This is taken for granted with respect to established democracies but the political agency of lawyers remains a largely unstudied phenomenon in post‐colonial Africa. This contribution interrogates the role of Zambian lawyers and their Law Association in recent political developments in that country. The central focus of the article is on the Oasis Forum, a unique coalition of lawyers, clergy and feminists that blocked the incumbent president's unconstitutional bid for a third term in office in 2001. The article examines the rising importance of legal process and discourse in the political realm and reflects on the significance of an increasingly aggressive ideology of legalism for state formation in Zambia.