Politics Within and Without — The Origins and Development of a Rangelands Landcare Group

The 1990s saw a resurgence of interest in land‐use reform in the arid and semi‐arid rangelands of Australia. Scientists and conservationists called for a reassessment of land use in areas now used for extensive grazing of cattle and sheep. Landcare groups formed by pastoralists were criticised for deflecting resources away from questions of land‐use reform. While Landcare groups in agricultural regions of Australia have been subject to considerable assessment, analysis of rangelands Landcare has tended to revolve around questions of land use to the neglect of analysis of the operation of the groups themselves. Based on a case study of a pastoral Landcare group in the rangelands, the research reported in this paper found that pastoral Landcare in the rangelands has comparable outcomes to Landcare elsewhere in terms of the creation of opportunities for improved communication and learning among landholders. In addition, this group has developed from an emphasis on single‐issue projects towards multi‐faceted projects focussed on social as well as ecological sustainability. The analysis also found that political considerations were significant in the forma‐tion of the group and remained important for some pastoralists at the time of fieldwork. Finally, rangelands Landcare in this case study has provided a vehicle for reformist pastoralists and their associates to work actively towards influencing their peers to acknowledge land management problems and to reflect on their management practices.     

The Digital Generation?: Children,ICT and the Everyday Nature of Social Exclusion

In this paper we explore the potentially inclusionary and exclusionary implications of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) for children through an examination of ICT policies and practices within UK schools. We begin by outlining the rhetoric of inclusion evident in UK government policy and by reflecting on how these discourses are mobilised in three case-study schools. We go on to consider issues of social exclusion, demonstrating that both material and social factors can prevent access to appropriate computer technology. In particular, we emphasise the importance of the way that children negotiate the meanings and use of computers through their everyday practices within the classroom. The paper concludes by arguing that only when we recognise that children's use of computers is about not only the broad-scale distribution of resources but also children's everyday social relations can we hope to institute policies that promote an inclusive 'information society'.     

Actualite´

The child and childhood were vital aspects of the ideology of the French Revolution, and the education of the young in the new ways of thinking was perceived as an urgent ideological enterprise in the 1790s. Little attention has been paid, however, to the strategies employed by writers of books for the young to mould a young and impressionable readership. The decade saw an attempt to revise from the grass roots level children's experience of books and their ways of reading, both for leisure and for educational purposes. This paper considers how this aim evolved in a crucial period in the history of French children's literature with particular reference to the narrative of exemplary lives.     

Prejudice: rethinking geographies of oppression

Despite equal opportunities legislation in many western societies, overt prejudice against minority groups is still evident. Yet, despite the persistence of equality issues, ‘prejudice’ is a term that is not widely employed in geography because of its association with a particular history of meaning within social psychology. In this paper I explore the concept of prejudice and its relationship to geographical research on discrimination and oppression. Then using original empirical research in three communities I examine how prejudice is justified and articulated by majority people. In doing so, I explore the complex intersectionalities of negative attitudes towards specific minority groups and the ways that specific mechanisms of sub-ordination can reinforce and support one another.     

Consuming campus: geographies of encounter at a British university

In this paper, we extend recent discussions on the geographies of encounter to examine how students and staff narrate their experiences of cross-cultural contact on a British university campus. In theory, the campus environment offers opportunities for more intense and prolonged forms of contact than the ephemeral micro-scale forms of interaction that have dominated much of the literature on encounters. In practice, however, our interviews suggest that many respondents tend to self-segregate, or in some instances are prevented from mixing with ‘others’ through institutional arrangements. As we also illustrate, the pressures posed by commercial forces on campus orientate certain students towards lifestyle choices and expectations which exclude others.     

The Ministry of Works and the Development of Souvenir Guides from 1955

The first formal guidebooks for historic sites placed in state guardianship in the United Kingdom appeared in 1917. There was an expansion of the series in the 1930s and 1950s. However, from the late 1950s the Ministry of Works, and later the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works, started to produce an additional series of illustrated souvenir guides. One distinct group covered Royal Palaces: the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Queen Victoria’s residence of Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, and Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh. This was followed by guides for archaeological sites such as Stonehenge and Avebury, the Neolithic flint mines at Grime’s Graves, the Roman villa at Lullingstone, and Hadrian’s Wall. In 1961, a series of guides, with covers designed by Kyffin Williams, was produced for the English castles constructed in North Wales. These illustrated guides, some with colour, prepared the way for the fully designed guides now produced by English Heritage, Cadw, and Historic Environment Scotland.