Engagement in a Public Forum: Knowledge,Action, and Cosmopolitanism

Facing challenges to the civic purpose of higher education, some scholars and administrators turn to the rhetoric of engagement. Simultaneously, the political philosophy of cosmopolitanism has gained intellectual favor, advocating openness to the lived experiences of distant others. We articulate linkages between these two discourses in an extended case study, finding that a cosmopolitan ethos of engagement in a rural context can improve (1) understanding among people ordinarily separated by spatialized social‐ecological differences, (2) prospects for longer term environmental sustainability, and (3) the visionary potential of collaborative inquiry. Despite globalization of food systems and neoliberal shifts in fishery management, an annual fisheries forum facilitates coalitions that overcome dichotomies between technocratic and local knowledge, extending benefits to fishing communities, academia, and public policy. Iterative and loosely structured capacity building expands informally through affective processes of recognition and care, as decentralized leadership supports collective mobilization toward alternate futures.     

Out of Arabia: British Strategy and the Fate of Local Forces in Aden,South Yemen,and Oman, 1967–76

The British engagement with Oman from 1967–76 came at a time when other imperial and defence commitments were being reduced in the Gulf region and elsewhere. Following the ignominious retreat from Aden, the British chose to support the Omani regime in its conflict with Communist-inspired insurgents (1970–6). This article gives context to the dichotomy of outcomes in southern Arabia and examines the role of local military forces in the counter-insurgencies. It demonstrates that Britain's domestic political considerations, regional strategic requirements, and concerns for its global reputation, rather than counterinsurgency operations and the local forces, were the main drivers of outcomes. Insurgents and local actors nevertheless responded to changes taking place in and around Oman, recalibrating their decision to co-operate or resist on their own terms, and changes in the international support for the insurgents were decisive. The key argument is that the dynamic combinations of international support, British strategic assumptions and miscalculations, and local agency, were crucially important to the outcomes in the region. The ‘fate’ of those who had allied with, or resisted, the British, needs to be set in this context.     

Homelessness,nature, and health: toward a feminist political ecology of masculinities

Engaging with feminist political ecology and leveraging experiences from a 16-month critical ethnography, this research explores ways in which masculinities served as both a rationale and an outcome of men facing homelessness living in the margins of an urban municipal public park – a space known as ‘the Hillside.’ Ethnographic narratives point to Hillside residents making their home in nature, connecting experiences in nature with various masculinities, and the gendered eschewing of social services. These portrayals further highlight the perceived feminization of social services within a context of rapidly neoliberalizing urban environments, and illustrate the ways participants positioned and engaged with social services. Entanglements of health and nonhuman nature prompt a feminist political ecological engagement with masculinity. Experiences from the Hillside add textured richness to discourses concerning the ways in which contemporary landscapes are constructed, perceived, experienced, and co-constituted through and with gender.     

Gender,empowerment, and cultural preservation at Topu Honis Shelter Home,Timor-Leste

Women's empowerment, the ability of a woman to make her own decisions and shape her own life, is a common goal for nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) operating under the gender and development framework. This article examines the way that one NGO, Topu Honis Shelter Home, in Oecussi, Timor-Leste, facilitates the empowerment of its young women members and challenges gender norms in a patriarchal society. In doing six months of participant observation research at Topu Honis and semi-structured interviews, I discerned four sources of empowerment, which are explored in this article: (1) gender equality, (2) education, (3) agency and confidence, and (4) cultural preservation. The primary finding of this research is the suggestion that cultural preservation can be an important resource for empowering women, even in a patriarchal society. At first glance, this may run counter to the dominant western notions of empowerment, but in the case of Topu Honis, key cultural practices are preserved while oppressive gender norms are simultaneously dis-embedded. Development practitioners should explore how preserving and promoting local cultural practices may contribute to development and/or empowerment.     

Gender,Race, and Rumours: Re-examining the 1943 Race Riots

Focusing on three riots of the World War II era – those of Beaumont (Texas), Detroit, and New York's Harlem – this essay examines the rumours that sparked these disturbances to uncover the gendered ideologies that underlie racial violence. In these rumour narratives, women appear as either rape victims or tortured mothers, while men appear as either depraved rapists or noble protectors. The deployment of these images helped forge a defensive collective identity that facilitated the outbreak of violence. Because racial and gender ideologies were intimately linked, the author argues, race riots must be analysed through the lens of gender in order to be fully understood.