Transformational design literacies: children as active place-makers

Innovative curriculum frameworks that support children as active researchers and designers in everyday learning contexts remain unprioritized in school settings. Design literacies challenge and expand existing curriculum structures at a time when state and national curriculum privilege literacy and numeracy testing. Drawing on a broader ethnographic study that examined children's inhabitation of school food gardens through pedagogies of food production, ecology and design in three Australian primary schools [Green, M. 2011 Green, M. 2011. “Place Matters: Pedagogies of Food, Ecology and Design.” Unpublished PhD, Monash University Churchill Victoria [Google Scholar]. “Place Matters: Pedagogies of Food, Ecology and Design.” Unpublished PhD, Monash University Churchill Victoria], this paper focuses on the design literacies or ‘design-centered pedagogy’ [McLaren, S. 2008 McLaren, S. 2008. “Learning for Engagement: Lose the Ring-Fencing.” Paper presented at the Technology Education Research Conference: Exploring Technology Education: Solutions to Issues in a Globalised World, Gold Coast, Queensland. [Google Scholar]. “Learning for Engagement: Lose the Ring-Fencing.” Paper presented at the Technology Education Research Conference: Exploring Technology Education: Solutions to Issues in a Globalised World, Gold Coast, Queensland] that supported children's engagement with everyday learning in one school community. Semi-structured and ‘walking interviews’ provide rich data for understanding the contributions of design and design processes in a garden-based curriculum. When linked to a framework of sustainability, design literacies can expand learning opportunities that deepen their connection to everyday places.     

Sexualized violence and the gendered commodification of the animal body in Pacific Northwest US dairy production

This article draws on a case study of bovine life in the US dairy industry to observe the power relations and violent networks of commodification involved. I use the terms gendered commodification and sexualized violence to understand the lives of animals in the industry and the discourses that are employed to reproduce its practices. Focusing on sex and gender, concepts which have long been classic in feminist geography, this article explores the sexually violent commodification of both female and male animals in dairy production. In addition to the ways in which both are exploited for their productive and reproductive capacities, male animals are also discursively conceptualized as perpetrators of the violence against the females. This article engages with geographies of the body and animal geographies in order to extend geographies of the body to other-than-human bodies and in order to feature the body more prevalently in animal geographies. This attention to the animal body ultimately reveals the pervasiveness of sexual violence and the consequences of gendered commodification for both nonhuman and human others.     

The Placing of Early Bronze Age Metalwork Deposits: New Evidence from Scotland

This paper considers the earliest metalwork hoards in Scotland, most of which have been found at conspicuous points in the landscape. The treatment of individual objects suggests that they had been carefully selected before they were deposited. Fieldwork, combined with computer reconstruction, shows that half the collections with adequate provenances come from places with direct views of the rising and setting sun at the solstices. The main emphasis seems to have been on midwinter.     

Phosphatic mineralization of seeds from archaeological sites

Recent investigations of botanical material from archaeological sites have provided seeds and plant remains exhibiting a crystalline or semi-crystalline appearance. X-ray diffraction and partial chemical analysis have revealed that the particular plant materials had been replaced by calcium phosphate. Using systematic sampling and retrieval techniques a significant body of data has been accumulated. Most mineralized botanical evidence has been recovered from faecal deposits, in particular cess pits and garderobes, and has provided an important source of information about aspects of diet of past populations.