Beyond ‘State Ibuism’: Empowerment Effects in State‐led Development in Indonesia

This article examines the ways women's processes of self‐formation are indicative (or not) of new possibilities for women's gendered selves in the post‐Reformasi period in Indonesia. It focuses on the development arena to reveal how shifts in state rhetoric, from top‐down guidance based on a patriarchal familial model to bottom‐up, inclusive development based on empowerment, have transformed what is referred to as the ‘topography for self’. The article draws upon theories of personhood a) to show how gendered selves emerge and are contested within particular historical conditions; and b) to develop an alternative framework of ‘empowerment’ that focuses not on capabilities and choice, but on an expansion in the possibilities for self. It argues that models of community‐driven development have provided new opportunities for women to hold and enact socially recognizable subject positions. This constitutes a form of empowerment for individual women but does not necessarily reflect challenges to patriarchy in Indonesia.     

Welshness in ‘British Wales’: negotiating national identity at the margins

Popular interpretations of national identity often focus on the unifying qualities of nationhood. However, societies frequently draw hierarchical distinctions between the people and places who are ‘most national’, and those who are ‘least national’. Little attention is paid to these marginal places within the nation and the experiences of their inhabitants. This article helps to address this by analysing the ‘less Welsh’ British Wales region of Wales, a country that has traditionally possessed a hierarchical, regionally constituted nationhood. The article studies the British Wales region both ‘from above’ – considering how some areas develop as ‘less national’ – and ‘from below’, introducing empirical ethnographic work into ‘everyday Welshness’ in this area. Whilst previous work on hierarchical nationhood focuses on how hierarchies are institutionalized by the state, this article demonstrates how people at the margins of the nation actively negotiate their place in the nation. Whilst people in this area expressed a strong Welshness, they also struggled to place themselves in the nation because they had internalized their lowly place within the national hierarchy. The article demonstrates the importance of place and social class for national identity construction and draws attention to the role of power in the discursive construction of hierarchical nationhood.     

Mississippian monumentality in the Yazoo Basin: recent investigations at the Carson site (22CO505), northwestern Mississippi

Investigations at the Carson site (22CO505), located in Coahoma County, Mississippi, have uncovered data on the development of a large Mississippian mound center dating to the period from A.D. 1200 through European contact. Recent sediment coring, excavation, artifact analyses, and radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating shed light on earthworks and household structures at Carson, and on Mississippian culture in the Yazoo Basin more generally. Sediment coring demonstrates a laterally transgressing Mississippi River system deposited coarse sandy ridges and clay-filled swales underneath a surface horizon comprised of variously coarse to medium-fine sediment originating from generalized overbank flooding. In some instances, flood-borne sediments were found on mound flanks, indicating that at times river-based flooding may have interrupted mound construction. Sediment coring and trench excavation also demonstrate that Carson’s Mound D was built in four stages, with Stages II and III comprising the major stages of earth moving. Excavations on the mound summit reveal evidence of several superimposed structures that were burned in place and likely used for the production of stone, shell, and wooden craft items, perhaps related to Mississippi Ideational Interaction Sphere (MIIS) paraphernalia. Here we describe recent investigations at Carson and present preliminary findings; forthcoming publications will emphasize strategies of power, monumentality, craft production, and Mississippian exchange systems.     

Foodways Archaeology: A Decade of Research from the Southeastern United States

Interest in the study of foodways through an archaeological lens, particularly in the American Southeast, is evident in the abundance of literature on this topic over the past decade. Foodways as a concept includes all of the activities, rules, and meanings that surround the production, harvesting, processing, cooking, serving, and consumption of food. We study foodways and components of foodways archaeologically through direct and indirect evidence. The current synthesis is concerned with research themes in the archaeology of Southeastern foodways, including feasting, gender, social and political status, and food insecurity. In this review, I explore the information that can be learned from material remains of the foodstuffs themselves and the multiple lines of evidence that can help us better understand the meanings, rituals, processes, and cultural meanings and motivations of foodways.     

‘I'd Feel Ashamed’: Girls' Bodies and Sports Participation

This article is concerned with the links between space, gender and adolescents' bodies. Drawing on data from both qualitative and quantitative research carried out with adolescents aged 13–16 in Liverpool, UK in 2001 the article examines girls' low participation rates in physical education (PE). Framed within theoretical work relating to the performance of corporeal femininities and ‘inhibited intentionality’ in reference to sporting confidence, girls' experiences of single-sex PE are compared with their perceptions of mixed PE in order to explore how the presence of boys may impact on girls' perceptions of their bodies and willingness to participate in sport. The results suggest that while girls still feel pressure from a male gaze to present their bodies to boys as passively beautiful, they also feel pressure to be competent at sport and thus present their bodies as active. However, single-sex PE does not provide a space where the male gaze is absent, suggesting this gaze has been internalized. This article explores the nature of school space in explaining differential participation rates, highlighting how sports within the space of the school, with an emphasis on competition and under the evaluative gaze of teachers, intensify some girls' fears of inadequacy in sports. The findings illustrate the complexities and contradictions present within and between girls' experiences of their bodies and sports and the relationship between school space and adolescents' bodies.

‘Siento Verguüenza’: Cuerpos de jovenas Y participación endeportes

Este artículo se ocupa de los enlaces entre espacio, género, y los cuerpos de adolescentes. Utilizando datos de una investigación cualitativo y cuantitativo que se llevó a caber con adolescentes de 13 hasta 16 años en Liverpool en 2001, examino el nivel bajo de la participación de jovenas en educación física. Las experiencias de jovenas de la educación física sólo para niñas se comparan con sus percepciones de la educación física mixta para explorar como la presencia de jóvenes (niños) influye la percepción de jovenas de sus cuerpos y sus buenas disposiciones para participar en deportes. Los resultados sugieren que mientras las jovenas sienten presión de las miradas masculinas para presentar sus cuerpos a ellos como pasivamente hermosos, sienten también la presión para estar capaz en los deportes y así presentar sus cuerpos como activos. Sin embargo, la educación física sólo para niñas no provee un espacio donde no hay una mirada masculina por que ésta mirada se ha sido interiorizado. Deportes en el espacio de la escuela tienen un énfasis en la competición y una mirada evaluativa de maestros y como consecuencia se intensifica el miedo de jovenas de ser inadecuado en deportes. Las conclusiones ilustran las complejidades y contradicciones en y entre las experiencias de jovenas de sus cuerpos y deportes, y la relación entre el espacio de la escuela y los cuerpos de adolescentes.     

The Merseyside Objective One Programme: Exemplar of Coherent City-regional Planning and Governance or Cautionary Tale?

This paper demonstrates how the Merseyside Objective One (MO1) programme provided a platform for sub-regional partners to develop a consensus about strategic economic development priorities and resulted in innovations and collective learning particularly in terms of community economic development and closer engagement of Higher Educational Institutions and the private sector. However, such gains were partially offset by over-complex management arrangements, blurred accountability, competition for resources and match funding problems. Devolution of responsibility for programme content and implementation under the new Structural Fund regulations should allow partners to address many of these shortcomings in the second MO1 programme. Tighter financial controls may, however, reduce room for manoeuvre and discourage experimentation.