The impossible intimacies of M N Roy

Manabendranath Roy (1884–1954) was a Marxist philosopher, an Indian nationalist, and an anti-colonial cosmopolitan. M.N. Roy ended up imprisoned in India for six years from 1931 to 1936, in the midst of the greatest colonial counterterrorism campaign ever organized by the British Raj. Aged 36 when he entered prison in 1931, he had already engaged in anti-colonial guerilla warfare in his youth during the swadeshi insurgency, 1903–1915. In subsequent years, up to his arrest in 1931, but especially during his prison years, Roy embarked on a long-term project to rethink and revise his own understanding of revolutionary action. Roy came to see the chief exponents of revolutionary action as “deviant” Indian women whose intimate relations transgressed the bounds of the traditional Hindu family. This essay studies the radical feminist currents in M.N. Roy's prison writings, and interprets his broader revolutionary project as a pursuit of “impossible intimacies” that transgressed the cultural bounds both of empire and of nation.     

Authenticity in tourism and Native Title: Place,time and spatial politics in the East Kimberley

This study examines the concepts of authenticity involved in the production and consumption of tourist experiences in the East Kimberley region of northern Australia. It contrasts the notions of authenticity produced in this domain with those produced in the legal context of indigenous land claims made through the Native Title process (Native Title Act 1993) in Australia. Our aim in making this comparison is to develop a deeper understanding of how the place-images of tourism relate to the politics of land use and land tenure in the East Kimberley. Environment and Aboriginal culture are the two unique aspects of northern Australia most commonly commodified by the tourism industry. We concentrate on relationships between the tourism industry and Aboriginal culture in the East Kimberley using the term 'Aboriginal cultural tourism' to denote the packaging of Aboriginal culture for tourist consumption. We describe experiences and expectations of tourists, tourism operators and Aboriginal people from the Miriuwung and Gajerrong groups regarding Aboriginal cultural tourism. Drawing on a multi-method approach that includes interviews, field observations and survey techniques we examine how ideas of authenticity are formed and promoted and their potential for change. We then compare and contrast ideas of authentic Aboriginal culture produced within the tourism industry with those produced within a Native Title claim. Interrogated in this way, the concept of authenticity is interpreted as a socially constructed value that provides a means to understanding how Aboriginal cultural tourism and tourism more generally connects with broader spatial politics. Cette étude examine les concepts d'authenticité impliqués dans la production et consommation d'expériences touristiques dans la région de Kimberley Est, située dans le Nord de l'Australie. Elle compare les notions d'authenticité issues de ce domaine avec celle produites dans le contexte légal de revendications territoriales aborigènes, menées selon le processus de Status Aborigène (Native Title Act 1993) en Australie. Par cette comparaison, notre but dans est de développer une meilleure compréhension de la façon dont les images touristiques locales sont reliées aux débats politiques concernant la propriété et l'utilisation du sol dans la région de Kimberley Est. L'environnement et la culture aborigène sont les deux aspects uniques du Nord de l'Australie les plus couramment appropriés par l'industrie touristique. Nous nous concentrons sur les relations entre l'industrie touristique et la culture aborigène en utilisant le terme 'tourisme culturel aborigène' afin de dénoter comment la culture aborigène est présentée pour fins de consommation touristique. Nous décrivons les expériences et attentes des touristes, des guides et des aborigènes appartenant aux groupes Miriuwung et Gajerrong envers ce tourisme culturel aborigène. A partir d'une approche multiple incluant entrevues, observations de terrain et différentes techniques d'enquête, nous examinons comment s'effectue la formation et promotion du concept d'authenticité et nous analysons son potentiel de changement. Nous comparons et contrastons ensuite l'idée d'une authenticité culturelle aborigène émergeant de l'industrie touristique avec celle produite par le biais de revendication du Statut Aborigène. Dans cette approche, le concept d'authenticité est envisagé comme étant le résultat d'un processus social capable d'ouvrir des voies d'analyse sur les façons dont le tourisme culturel aborigène, et le tourisme en général, est relié à une politique de l'espace beaucoup plus large. Esta investigación examina los conceptos de autenticidad que corresponden a la producción y el consumo de experiencias turísticas en la región de East Kimberley en el norte de Australia. Compara las nociones de autenticidad producidas en este campo con aquellas producidas en el contexto legal de las reclamaciones de tierra indígena realizadas por el proceso de Título Nativo (Native Title Act 1993) en Australia. Con esta comparación pretendemos llegar a una comprensión más amplia de cómo las imágenes turísticas del lugar encajan con las políticas de uso de tierra y de tenencia de tierra en el East Kimberley. El medio ambiente y la cultura aborígena son los dos aspectos únicos del norte de Australia más frecuentemente mercanceados para el turismo. Enfocamos en la relación entre la industria turística y la cultura aborígena en el East Kimberley, utilizando el término 'turismo cultural aborígena' para indicar el empacamiento de la cultura aborígena para consumo turístico. Describimos las experiencias y las expectativas de turistas, operadores de viajes y gente aborígena de los grupos Miriuwung y Gajerrong con respecto al turismo cultural aborígena. Haciendo uso de entrevistas, observaciones del campo y encuestas analizamos cómo las ideas de autenticidad son formadas y fomentadas y su potencia para efectuar cambios. Después comparamos las ideas de lo que es la auténtica cultura aborígena generadas en la indústria turística con las ideas producidas en una reclamación de Título Nativo. Así interrogado, el concepto de autenticidad es interpretado como un valor de construcción social que nos ayuda a entender como el turismo cultural aborígena, y el turismo en general, enlaza con una política de espacio más amplia.     

Land Recycling, Community Revitalization, and Distributive Politics: An Analysis of EPA Brownfields Program Support

This article examines social, economic, and political factors influencing the distribution of resources to local governments under the EPA Brownfields Program, an innovative federal effort to encourage the remediation and redevelopment of contaminated properties. Signed into law in 2002, the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act provided the program with a congressional mandate, new tools to promote reuse such as liability protections, and increased funding up to a level of $250 million per year. This article contributes to research on environmental regulatory reform with an analysis of successful and unsuccessful local government applicants for EPA Brownfields Program support between 2003 and 2007. Building on prior research, we develop a series of expectations and an empirical model, and estimate the influence of program priorities, government and civic capacity, interest group pressures, and institutional politics. Results point to significant relationships between program priorities and award patterns. Contrary both to EPA's explicit commitments to equity and to analysis of pre-2003 award patterns, however, we find negative correlations between the proportions of local populations that are nonwhite or low-income and the likelihood of receiving an award. In addition, better-resourced governments and several dimensions of political representation show strong associations with the likelihood of winning awards. We conclude by discussing implications.     

Middle Holocene fishing strategies in East Africa: zooarchaeological analysis of Pundo,a Kansyore shell midden in northern Nyanza (Kenya)

A zooarchaeological and taphonomic analysis is presented for the faunal remains from the Pundo shell midden in northern Nyanza province (Kenya), which contains Kansyore ceramics and dates to ca. 8000–7600 cal. BP. The faunal assemblage is overwhelmingly dominated by fish and molluscs, of which only the fish data are presented in detail. Taxonomic identifications suggest a diachronic change in relative species abundance, with cichlids becoming increasingly dominant, eventually comprising nearly 80% of the fish assemblage. The Pundo faunal data are compared with those from a number of other Kansyore sites. Pundo confirms that early Kansyore sites are purely forager sites, with domestic caprines only appearing at late Kansyore sites (post‐dating ca. 4400 cal. BP). Comparing ethological data for fish taxa found at Pundo and other lakeshore shell middens with those for fish taxa found at larger riverside sites, a seasonal round is suggested, in which short‐term fishing camps such as Pundo may have been occupied in the dry season, while riverside sites were probably occupied during the rainy season. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Aboriginal Participation in Environment Planning

The efforts to involve Aboriginal people in the development of a management plan for a newly created World Heritage Area (WHA) in northern Queensland are examined. Although the management agency expended considerable effort to encourage the participation of local Aboriginal people the program was flawed and served to marginalise some Aboriginal groups from the management of their traditional lands. The management agency failed to understand the nature of contemporary and traditional Aboriginal social organisation. Insensitivity to the diverse nature of Aboriginal social organisation, and ignorance of the complexity of Aboriginal representation, rendered the interests of some groups with traditional interests invisible to the management agency. Because the management agency uncritically accepted the claims to a mandate for regional representation by one Aboriginal lobby group, this group was able to assume a dominant position in liaising with the management agency.     

Constructive comments on D Massey 'Space-time, "science" and the relationship between physical geography and human geography:rsquo;

This paper provides a discussion of Massey's (1999) account of the role of space-time in human and physical geography. Recognizing the relative (but not absolute) paucity of comment from physical geographers on questions of approach and method, the paper seeks to demonstrate three things. First, it casts a history of a narrow part of geomorphology in a similar vein to a part of human geography to demonstrate that it is possible to find strong shared characteristics in the ways in which the two subjects are being approached. This emphasizes the importance of analyses that recognize both space and time in seeking explanation in physical geography and which has important implications for: (i) the nature of laws and processes in geomorphology; and hence (ii) the interpretation of specific landforms and their histories. Second, the paper argues that much of what Massey addresses relates to the closure required to make things amenable to study, something that is characteristic of almost every type of research. This has long been acknowledged in science in general and in physical geography in particular, but is often forgotten. Third, the paper uses this consideration of closure to address the issue of the relational nature of different sorts of space-time models. Following Massey's argument that the sort of space-time model that we adopt needs to be informed by the entities that we study, the paper concludes that some of the space-time models that Massey critiques (e.g. classical Newtonian mechanics) may still be fundamental to what we do, and in no sense necessarily ahistorical.