And a Historical Folklore Survey? A Reply to John Widdowson’s ‘New Beginnings’

This note is written in support of John Widdowson’s recent reflections on the direction of folklore studies in Britain. A general discussion is in everyone’s interest and with his words Widdowson has given a gentle whack to the beehive. This article offers more of the same, although from the perspective of historical folklore.     

The making of mining expectations: mining romanticism and historical memory in a neoliberal political landscape

This paper investigates a greenfield mining project in a peripheral region in northern Sweden through the analysis of how different actor groups formed their own ‘horizons of expectations’ that temporally became fused, only to crumble together with the mining company in a short period of time. By focusing on the co-evolvement of expectations, we show how expectations are differentiated along geographical and temporal scales, reflect upon how these differences relate to interests and historical memory, and finally what these differences mean for the development of large-scale, long-term, raw materials-based projects devoted to industrial production in depopulating areas in an economy otherwise orientated towards neoliberal governance and post-industrial development. By doing so, we make a theoretical contribution to the literature on expectations through the introduction of the concept ‘horizon of expectations’, and a contribution to the literature on neoliberalism and its cultural-geographical implications.     

CROSSING THE RIVER: HOW LOCAL STRUGGLES BUILD A BROADER MOVEMENT

A case study of environmental justice organizing in South Carolina explores how local activists can build an oppositional ideology that connects to a broader agenda for social justice. A multi-issue, state-wide workers' rights organization provided ideological context and strategic experience that enabled residents fighting to clean up a polluted pond to connect their concern to a wider effort for economic justice and undoing racism. The organization's worker-centered, multi-racial identity and an organizing strategy that exposes contradictions of the dominant ideology are seen as enabling these wider connections.     

An Angular Version of Spatial Correlations,with Exact Significance Tests

Spatial correlations are replaced by ordinary correlations by projecting the two-dimensional coordinates of a map onto a single axis making angle θ with the horizontal (east-west) axis. This calculation permits the use of exact test statistics. Moreover, the correlations can be plotted in polar coordinate form and the significance of the maximum correlation can be tested. The plot is a useful aid in assessing the reasonableness of the isotropy assumption.     

A View of Their Own: Women's Committee Leadership Styles and State Legislatures

Analysis of survey data from 291 state legislative committee chairs suggests that professionalization has important gender implications not previously explored. Legislatures are gendered in the sense that culturally masculine and feminine committee management styles are more at home in some legislatures than in others. "Citizen" legislatures seem to be more hospitable to "feminine" behaviors of inclusion and a motivation focused on people-oriented concerns. Professionalized legislatures–promoted in large part on the basis of a masculine vocabulary of independence, rationality, expertise, and competition with the executive–discourage inclusive or collegial committee strategies and public-minded motives. Professional legislatures may be positive environments in which to nurture policy leadership, but their committee leaders eschew public participation.     

Not nearly enough geography! University provision for England’s pre-service primary teachers

Research into geography provision in primary initial teacher education [ITE] courses in the United Kingdom and worldwide is very limited. England educates pre-service primary teachers of 5–11 year olds to be “generalists” who teach the full range of curriculum subjects, including geography. This article identifies that the provision of teaching time for geography is low and declining in England’s primary ITE courses. It presents a picture which may not seem dissimilar in other parts of the world. With only about half of pre-service primary teachers in England having studied geography after age 14, their subject knowledge appears weak. University-based ITE subject sessions rarely extend beyond introducing them to England’s primary geography requirements and to some approaches to teaching geography. Prospective primary teachers observe and teach limited, if any, geography in primary schools. Developing their geographical understanding and teaching capability is highly challenging for tutors. There are concerns that the current situation may well decline further. Encouragement exists to develop geography provision in primary ITE but the opportunities to achieve this appear increasingly constrained as the pre-service environment moves from university-led to school-led provision. International comparative research is essential to understand better pre-service primary teachers’ learning to teach geography.