Building Bridges Through Performance and Decision‐making: Schools,Research and Public Engagement

Abstract: This paper uses the impact agenda in the UK to realign debate about the relationship between schools, universities and (human) geography. It positions this debate in systemic tendencies within UK higher education. It argues that, whilst impact can be seen as a further instance of neoliberalism, emphasising the gap between accountability and accounting allows an identification with communicative and reflexive knowledge and, more broadly, critical praxis. The paper draws on a year‐long research‐based collaboration with school teachers and their students involving performance work and the development of decision‐making curriculum materials. It argues that working in these ways with schools can provide the basis for public engagement partnerships between schools and universities and a means to constitute diverse research publics. In these ways, it is argued, a wider sense of impact can be reappropriated, to reclaim the critical subject and to constitute academic value     

Emwadea microcarpa gen. et sp. nov.—anatomically preserved araucarian seed cones from the Winton Formation (late Albian), western Queensland,Australia

Dettmann, M.E., Clifford, H.T., Peters, M., June 2012. Emwadea microcarpa gen. et sp. nov.—anatomically preserved araucarian seed cones from the Winton Formation (late Albian), western Queensland, Australia. Alcheringa, 217–237. ISSN 0311-5518.

A new genus and species, Emwadea microcarpa Dettmann, Clifford & Peters, is established for ovulate/seed cones with helically arranged cone scales bearing a centrally positioned, inverted ovule from the basal Winton Formation (late Albian), Eromanga Basin, Queensland. The cones are small, prolate ellipsoidal (9.5–14 mm vertical axis, 6.3–8.7 mm transverse axis) with wedge-shaped cone scales bearing winged seeds attached adaxially to the scale only by tissues surrounding the vasculature entering the ovule. Ovuliferous tissue that is free from the cone scale extends distally from the chalaza; the seeds' lateral wings are derived from the integument. Foliage attached to the cones is spirally arranged, imbricate and with spreading and incurved bifacial blades with acute tips; stomata are arranged in longitudinal files and are confined to the adaxial surface. The cone organization testifies to placement within the Araucariaceae, and is morphologically more similar to Wollemia and Agathis than to Araucaria.

Mary Dettmann [mary.dettmann@qm.qld.gov.au] and Trevor Clifford, Queensland Museum, PO Box 3300, South Brisbane, Q 4101, Australia; Mark Peters, PO Box 366 Gumeracha, SA 5233, Australia. Received 31.3.2011; revised 23.8.2011; accepted 5.9.2011.

     

Book reviews

Gareth Evans and Bruce Grant. Australia's Foreign Relations: In the World of the 1990s. Melbourne University Press, 1991. xx + 389 pp. $34.95.

Hugh Smith (ed.). Australia and Peacekeeping. Campbell, ACT, Australian Defence Studies Centre, Australian Defence Force Academy, 1990. viii + 137 pp. $10.00.

Alan Dupont. Australia's Security Interests in Northeast Asia. Canberra Papers on Strategy and Defence No.84. Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, 1991. xii + 131 pp. $13.50.

Desmond Ball. Building Blocks for Regional Security. Canberra Papers on Strategy and Defence No.83. Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University, 1991. xv + 109 pp. $12.00.

Francis G. Castles (ed.). Australia Compared: People, Policies andPolitics. North Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 1991. xvii + 291 pp. $22.95.

C. Carstairs and R. Ware (eds). Parliament and International Relations. Buckingham, UK, Open University Press, 1991. xii + 195 pp. $34.95.

Mark Turner. Papua New Guinea: The Challenge of Independence. Ringwood, Vic, Penguin Books Australia, 1990. viii + 200 pp. $16.99.

Sean Dorney. Papua New Guinea. People, Politics and History since 1975. Sydney, Random House Australia, 1990. vii + 330 pp. $16.95.

A.D. Couper (ed.). Development and Social Change in the Pacific Islands. London and New York, Routledge, 1989. x +203 pp. $99.95.

Peter Bauer, Savenaca Siwatibau and Wolfgang Kaspar. Aid and Development in the South Pacific. St Leonards, Centre for Independent Studies, 1991. ix + 120 pp. $15.95.

Jeremy Carew‐Reid. Environment, Aid and Regionalism in the South Pacific. Canberra, National Centre for Development Studies, Pacific Research Monograph No.22, 1989. xi + 185 pp. $25.00.

Viberto Selochan (ed.). The Military, the State, and Development in Asia and the Pacific. Boulder, Westview Press, 1991. xix + 288 pp. $US34.95.

Robert McKinlay. Third World Military Expenditure. London, Pinter Publishers Ltd, 1989. 154 pp. $63.75

Chandran Jeshurun (ed.). Arms and Defence in Southeast Asia. Singapore, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1990. $US19.00 (hardcover), $US14.00.

Takashi Inoguchi. Japan's International Relations. London, Pinter Publishers/Boulder, Westview Press, 1991. xii + 190 pp. £10.95.

Kenneth M, Wells. New God, New Nation. Protestants and Self‐Reconstruction Nationalism in Korea 1896–1937. Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 1991. xi + 222 pp. $24.95.

Maila Stivens (ed.). Why Gender Matters in Southeast Asian Politics. Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash University, 1991. 123 pp. $16.00.

Ruth Havelaar. Quartering: A Story of a Marriage in Indonesia During the Eighties. Clayton, Vic., Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash University, 1991. xxvi + 125 pp. $14.00.

Max Lane. ’Openness’. Political Discontent and Succession in Indonesia: Political Developments in Indonesia, 1989–91. Griffith University, Centre for the Study of Australia‐Asia Relations, Australia‐Asia Papers No.56, 1991. iii + 74 pp. No price given.

M.C. Ricklefs (ed.). Islam in the Indonesian Social Context, Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash University, 1991. 82 pp. No price given.

John Taylor. Indonesia's Forgotten War. The Hidden History of East Timor. London, Zed Books, 1991. xvi + 230 pp. $22.46.

E.J. Hobsbawm. Nations and Nationalism since 1780. Programme, Myth, Reality. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1990. viii + 191 pp. $39.95.

Urmila Phadnis. Ethnicity and Nation‐building in South Asia. New Delhi, Sage, 1990. 328 pp. Rs.225.

Barry M. Schutz and Robert O. Slater (eds). Revolution and Political Change in the Third World. Boulder, Lynne Rienner Publishers/London, Adamantine Press Limited, 1990. x + 260 pp. £14.50 (paper), £28.50 (cloth).

Geoffrey C. Gunn and Jefferson Lee. Cambodia Watching Down Under. Institute of Asian Studies Monograph No.47. Institute of Asian Studies, Chulalongkorn University, 1991. xxx + 328 pp. No price given.

Archie Brown (ed.). Political Leadership in the Soviet Union. Basingstoke, UK, MacMillan, 1989. ix + 245 pp. £14.99 (paper). £35.00 (cloth).

Jeffrey Simon (ed.). European Security Policy after the Revolutions of 1989. Washington, D.C., National Defense University Press, 1991. xvi + 639 pp. No price given.

Amin Saikal and William Maley. Regime Change in Afghanistan: Foreign Intervention and the Politics of Legitimacy. Bathurst, NSW, Crawford House Press in association with the Australian Institute of International Affairs, 1991. xiii + 190 pp. $37.95.

David:Butler and DA. Low (eds). Sovereigns and Surrogates: Constitutional Heads of State in the Commonwealth. Houndmills, Macmillan, 1991. 365 pp. £45.00.

Jeffrey T. Richelson and Desmond Ball. The Ties that Bind. Sydney, Unwin Hyman, 1990. 426 pp. $19.95.

Desmond Ball and Cathy Downes (eds). Security and Defence: Pacific and Global Perspectives. Sydney, Allen and Unwin, 1990. 517 pp. $29.95.

Jonathan Unger (ed.). The Pro‐Democracy Protests in China: Reports from the Provinces. North Sydney, Allen and Unwin, 1991. xii + 239 pp. $24.95.

G. Linge and D. Forbes (eds). China's Spatial Economy. Hong Kong, Oxford University Press, 1990. xiii + 223 pp. $29.95.

Colin Mackerras, Kevin BucknaU and Russell Trood. The Beijing Tragedy: Implications/or China and Australia. Griffith University, Centre for the Study of Australia‐Asia Relations, 1991. Australia‐Asia Papers No.51. vii + 93 pp. No price given.

P. Alston and G. Brennan (eds). The UN Children's Covenant and Australia. HREOC, Australian National University Centre for International and Public Law, ACOSS, 1991. ix + 133 pp. $10.00.

Adam Jamrozik. Class, Inequality and the State. South Melbourne, Macmillan Australia, 1991. xx + 348 pp. $29.95 (paper), $59.95 (cloth).

R. Ovendale. The United States and the End of the Palestine Mandate 1942–1948. Studies in History No.52. Woodbridge, Suffolk, Boydell & Brewster Ltd for the Royal Historical Society, 1989. 332 pp. £37.50.

R. Springborg. Mubarak's Egypt. Fragmentation of the Political Order. Boulder and London, Westview Press, 1989. xi + 307 pp. £31.00.     

Archives and care: Caring archival research practices in geography

Archival research has been long recognized as a key method in geography, and such research continues to appeal to scholars excavating historical influences on contemporary places. At the same time, geographical literature on care is growing rapidly. However, while geographers have often implemented care into their archival research and practice, these literatures have remained largely distinct from each other. In this paper, I bring archives and care into closer conversation. Drawing on existing geographical literature on care and on archival methods, work in archival studies, and my own research and ethnographic experiences in archives, I show how the socio-material practices of geographers in the archives help generate spaces of care, where ethical caring practices exist, and caring relationships flourish. I demonstrate how archival work in geography and beyond includes relationships of care between archivists, researchers, and archival records. I share some examples and strategies that geographers and other researchers can—and do—follow in maintaining, continuing, and repairing archival relationships, even in times of precarity and uncertainty.     

Soil and organic carbon losses from varying land uses: a global meta‐analysis

Soil (SL) and organic carbon losses (SOC_L) have increased with human population and climate change linked extreme events. While SL and SOC_L are clearly associated with surface run‐off, the impact of land use is still not well understood. This article elucidates the effects of land use, surface cover, and other environmental factors on SL and SOC_L using data from 55 published studies. The overall SL (12.34 ± 2.25 Mg ha^?1 year^?1) and SOC_L (21.80 ± 0.91 g C m^?2 year^?1) suggests substantial losses of the fertile topsoil globally. Grasslands (4.19 ± 1.22 Mg ha^?1 year^?1) had 77%, 66%, and 41% lower SL than orchards, croplands, and forests, respectively, which is attributable to higher soil organic matter and surface cover. Croplands had the highest SOC_L at 22.78 ± 2.22 g C m^?2 year^?1. Natural vegetation had 98% and 70% lower run‐off and SL than did plant residue mulched plots, indicating its great potential for surface run‐off and soil erosion control. Rainfall and slope were key drivers of soil erosion, while soil surface cover, SOC, and clay content decreased. These findings improve our knowledge on soil and organic carbon losses, which is useful for fostering sustainable management of soils and natural vegetation to enhance ecosystems functionality.     

Theft and Gender in Late Medieval Bologna

This article aims to challenge the prevalent presentation and analysis of gender in studies of theft in the Middle Ages. Female thieving is usually differentiated from men's – by motivation and mode, by venue and value – and these differences are related either to women's physical inferiority or to their nurturing roles (thieving to support the domestic economy) or to inequalities of access to such elements as weapons (for robbery) or tools (for burglary). When studying theft, historians have focused on male thieving as the norm, and they have tended to differentiate thieving according to gender: women mainly commit petty theft, often for immediate consumption, and do not steal on the highways, in gangs or with weapons and violence. Men, on the other hand, operate in groups: their motivation is more diverse and they use a more varied repertoire of modus operandi, which includes highway robbery. To re‐examine these characterisations, I have taken data from three twenty‐year periods from the criminal court of the city of Bologna in northern Italy (one of the most complete series of judicial records for the period). These yield a total of over 700 prosecutions and over 1,300 accused. The focus of the analysis is on elements of differentiation, such as the numbers of individual and gang thefts, the nature of goods stolen, the use of violence, et cetera. These show that, while there was some differentiation between male and female thieving, this was mainly quantitative, and that qualitatively there were more shared features of behaviour. What are often seen to be the distinguishing features of male thieving – robbery, violence, gangs, professionals – turn out to be a small, untypical group. What is often seen to be the distinguishing features of female thieving – petty theft for immediate consumption – turns out to be equally or more true of male theft.