Looking at Domestic Textiles: An Eye-Tracking Experiment Analysing Influences on Viewing Behaviour at Owlpen Manor

Decorative textiles were once ubiquitous and important, occupying a significant social and cultural space in the early modern interior, yet their impact upon how individuals engaged with domestic spaces is largely unknown. One way of approaching their impact is through an exploration of how present-day individuals engage visually with them in relation to other objects as they walk around an historic space. This article reports on one such investigation, an eye-tracking study which explored responses to the narrative hangings in Queen Margaret’s Chamber at Owlpen Manor in Gloucestershire. Using eye-tracking equipment, we compared the viewing behaviour of two groups of participants, to whom we gave key information before they entered the room. We found that both the expertise of the viewers and the information provided influenced their viewing behaviour. Our findings highlight the importance of individual understanding and information provided to viewers when engaging with historic spaces, and can inform museum and heritage practice as well as enhancing our comprehension of how viewers engage with such textiles in historic spaces.     

Reflections on the ESRC internship scheme for postgraduates

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) in the UK is one of the main sources of funding for postgraduate study in human geography. For some years now, the ESRC has offered funded students the opportunity to apply to undertake a short internship in a government department or with a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO). This paper provides a collective reflection from the perspective of four former postgraduates who completed different ESRC supported internships in the UK. We discuss the enhancement of writing skills for diverse audiences, the advancement of knowledge in diverse subject areas, and the opening up of employment opportunities as key benefits of participating in the ESRC internship scheme.     

Foucauldian discourse: Power and truth in Urban and regional policy making

This paper explores the implications of Michael Foucault's work on discourse, knowledge and power for our understanding of the policy process, and for planning theory. A recurrent weakness in planning theory is its failure to address issues of power. In particular, the recent turn to argument in planning theory, grounded in Habermasian Communicative Rationality, is marked by power‐blindness. The importance of a focus on power is discussed, focusing on the sociopolitical contexts of planning, theory in planning and the inter‐disciplinary nature of planning. The paper concludes that the turn to argument risks rendering the policy process vulnerable to the influence of power. Foucault's work suggests an alternative planning paradigm which unmasks and challenges power and brings the possibility of empowerment.     

Book reviews

Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Labor Markets and Integrating National Economies. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1994. xxvi + 126 pp. No price given.

F.M. Scherer. Competition Policies for an Integrated World Economy, Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1994. xxii + 133 pp. No price given.

Sylvia Ostry and Richard R. Nelson, Techno‐Nationalism and Techno‐Globalism: Conflict and Cooperation. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1995. xxvi + 160 pp. $US28.95 (paper).

Richard N. Cooper, Environmental and Resource Policies for the World Economy. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1994. No price given.

C. Randall Henning, Currencies and Politics in the United States, Germany, And Japan. Washington, DC: Institute for International Economics, 1994. 432 pp. $17.99.

Ming Zhang, Major Powers at a Crossroads: Economic Interdependence and an Asia‐Pacific Security Community. Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner, 1995. xiii + 223 pp. $US49.95 (cloth).

Zaki Laïdi (ed.), Power and Purpose After the Cold War. Oxford and Providence, RI: Berg, 1994. xv + 213 pp. £14.95 (paper), £34.95 (cloth).

Hans‐Henrik Holm and Georg S0rensen (eds), Whose World Order? Uneven Globalization and the End of the Cold War. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1995. x + 246 pp. $US28.95 (paper).

Geoffrey Stern, The Structure of International Society: an Introduction to the Study of International Relations. London and New York: Pinter, 1995. vi + 314 pp. £11.99 (paper).

David Held, Democracy and the Global Order: From the Modern State to Cosmopolitan Governance. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1995. xii + 324 pp. £13.95 (paper).

James L. Richardson, Crisis Diplomacy: The Great Powers Since the Mid‐Nineteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. x + 426 pp. $32.50 (paper).

James Burk (ed.), The Military in New Times: Adapting Armed Forces to a Turbulent World. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994. ix + 212 pp. $US44.95 (cloth).

Lawrence Freedman (ed.), Military Intervention in European Conflicts. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1994. 195 pp. $39.95 (paper).

Mark Curtis, The Ambiguities of Power: British Foreign Policy Since 1945. London: Zed Books, 1995. vi + 250 pp. $US25.00 (paper), SUS59.95 (cloth).

Wang Enbao, Hong Kong, 1997: The Politics of Transition. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1995. xiii + 231 pp. $US45.00 (cloth).

Kobkua Suwannathat‐Pian, Thailand's Durable Premier. Phibun Through Three Decades, 1932–1957. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1995. xiv + 332 pp. $39.95 (cloth).

Sandy Gordon and Stephen Henningham (eds), India Looks East: An Emerging Power and its Asia‐Pacific Neighbours. Canberra: Canberra Papers on Strategy and Defence, No. 111, Australian National University, 1995. xx + 280 pp. $24.00 (paper).

Ralph R. Premdas, Ethnic Conflict and Development: The Case of Fiji. Aldershot (UK): Avebury, 1995. xi + 198 pp. £45.00 (cloth).

Werner J. Feld and Robert S. Jordan with Leon Hurwitz, International Organizations. A Comparative Approach. 3rd edn. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 1994. xxiii + 338 pp. $US24.95 (paper), $US75.00 (cloth).