Early pan‐Arabism in Egypt's July revolution: the Free Officers' political formation and policy‐making, 1946–54

Between 1952 and 1970, Gamal Abdel Nasser and Egypt's Free Officers Movement established the paradigmatic pan‐Arabist revolution from above. Yet it has become something of a cliché to maintain that the Free Officers had no blueprint of action before seizing power and that they later instrumentalised pan‐Arabism in their foreign policy, thinly veiling their actual commitments to Egyptian nationalism and imperialism. By contrast, this contribution underlines the impact of the British colonial context on the Free Officers' political formation and their early identification with pan‐Arabism in turn. Drawing on pamphlets, speeches, media output and memoirs, it shows that the Free Officers developed a distinctive form of anticolonial nationalism that emphasised social justice and invoked overlapping Egyptian and Arab identities. Their aspirations for liberation thus entailed a connected foreign policy and nation building programme in which pan‐Arabism was a prime – and early – component.     

Practical Knowledge in the Viking Age: the use of mental templates in clinker shipbuilding

It has long been recognized that ships built according to the Nordic clinker tradition during the Viking Age were conceived and constructed simultaneously by eye, in a shell‐first manner, and using rules‐of‐thumb to control both the longitudinal and transversal shape of the hull. While a lot of attention has been paid to the conceptual definition of the keel and stems, far less research has explored how such rules would have worked while planking the hull. Two cargo‐ships, Skuldelev 3 and Skuldelev 1, are used to argue for pre‐design and the use of mental templates. This highlights a cognitive dimension of practical knowledge, in particular how it was accumulated, stored and transmitted.     

Gardening the Wild: Change in the Flora and Vegetation of a Suburban Coastal Reserve 1911–2013

Intensively used and managed remnants of native vegetation in cities can have characteristics that result as much from ecological gardening as processes independent of humans. We test the degree to which the changes in vegetation of the Bayside Reserve, Melbourne, are consistent with the outcome we would expect from an ecologically gardened nature and to what degree they reflect ongoing processes of exotic invasion and synthetic vegetation dynamics. We compared species lists from 1911, 1971 and 2013 and sample area data from 1971 and 2013. The flora became richer and more exotic, although some native plant species lost in 1971 had been reintroduced to the reserve in 2013. Between 1971 and 2013, the vegetation increased in cover, shrub and tree density, sample areas species richness, and nativeness, the latter two results being inconsistent with the usual patterns of increasing exoticness and decline in species richness with shrub and tree encroachment. These variations from normality were likely to have resulted from the impacts of planting of natives and weeding of exotics, activity that has created combinations of species that probably never occurred in pre‐European vegetation. Although it might not be possible to return to pre‐European ecosystems within this vegetation remnant, the gardened approximation helps some locally uncommon species survive and may make people more sympathetic to nature conservation as a whole.     

Perceptions of Risk among Households in Two Australian Coastal Communities

There is limited knowledge of risk perceptions in coastal communities despite their vulnerability to a range of risks including the impacts of climate change. A survey of 400 households in two Australian coastal communities, combined with semi‐structured interviews, provides insight into household perceptions of the relative importance of climatic and non‐climatic risks and the subsequent risk priorities that may inform household adaptive action. In contrast to previous research, the results demonstrated that geographic location and household characteristics might not affect perceptions of vulnerability to environmental hazards. However, past experience was a significant influence, raising the priority of environmental concerns. Overall, the results highlight the priority concerns of coastal households (from finance, to health and environment) and suggest to increase the profile of climate issues in coastal communities climate change strategies need to better demonstrate links between climate vulnerability and other household concerns. Furthermore, promoting generic capacities in isolation from understanding the context in which households construe climate risks is unlikely to yield the changes required to decrease the vulnerability of coastal communities.     

Multiple Microanalyses of a Sample from the Vinland Map

A sample of the Vinland Map remaining from the radiocarbon dating was analysed with the purpose of identifying the post‐1950 contaminant and establishing other evidence on the material composition, identity and condition. The analyses revealed that the parchment originates from a bovid and contains hair remnants. The fibre structure was in poor condition, with fragmented collagen fibres and a low hydrothermal stability. Greenish and reddish particles were observed on the parchment. The greenish particles were identified as basic copper(II) chloride, most probably atacamite, and the reddish particles as rust; that is, various iron(III) oxides. The extracted modern contaminant was identified as being naturally produced glycerol monostearate.     

Going unscripted: A call to critically engage storytelling methods and methodologies in geography and the medical‐health sciences

Geography and the medical‐health sciences have long histories of engaging the humanities. The last decade has seen for both disciplines a significant growth in theoretical frameworks, pedagogic strategies, and research methods that draw upon visual and literary arts, critical self‐reflection, creative tools and expressions, and even direct engagement or partnership with artists, curators, authors, theatre‐practitioners, and other professionals in the arts. Both geographers and medical‐health professionals, then, are increasingly (re)making and understanding various worlds through the humanities. In this paper we explore the histories of humanities in both geography and the medical‐health sciences, especially medicine: we argue the two disciplines have much to learn from each other's engagement and work with the humanities. Focusing on the increasing use of narrative and storytelling in both disciplines, we argue that deployment of humanities‐based frameworks and impulses must not be taken up without careful and critical analytical reflection. Finally, we ground our theoretical explorations with empirical examples from recent community‐based work about the risks and benefits of storytelling and visual arts when looking at the health geographies of Indigenous and settler peoples in Northern British Columbia.

De manière impromptue : vers une démarche critique sur les méthodes de mise en récit et les méthodologies en géographie et en sciences médicales et de la santé

L'intérêt pour les sciences humaines par la géographie et les sciences médicales et de la santé s'inscrit dans une longue tradition. Au cours de la dernière décennie, les deux disciplines ont connu une importante croissance de cadres théoriques, de stratégies pédagogiques et de méthodes de recherche qui font appel aux arts visuels et à la littérature, à l'autoréflexion critique, à des outils et modes d'expression novateurs, voire même à une participation directe ou à des partenariats avec des artistes, conservateurs, auteurs, praticiens de l'art dramatique et d'autres professionnels du domaine des arts. Autant les géographes que les professionnels de la médecine et de la santé contribuent de plus en plus à (re)constituer et comprendre divers mondes à travers les sciences humaines. Cet article brosse un tableau historique des sciences humaines tant en géographie qu'en sciences médicales et de la santé, en particulier la médecine : nous soutenons que les deux disciplines ont beaucoup à apprendre l'une de l'autre sur l'intérêt que chacune porte aux sciences humaines. En mettant l'accent sur le recours grandissant par les deux disciplines à la narration et à la mise en récit, nous faisons valoir l'idée que le déploiement des cadres et des impulsions fondés sur les sciences humaines ne peut pas être envisagé sans mener au préalable une réflexion analytique minutieuse et critique. Enfin, nous fondons cette étude du champ théorique sur des exemples empiriques tirés de travaux réalisés à l'échelle communautaire sur les risques et les avantages de la mise en récit et des arts visuels quand on se penche sur les aspects géographiques de la santé des peuples autochtones et colonisateurs dans le nord de la Colombie‐Britannique.