Visualizing New Deal Debates: FDR's Big Stick

This article examines the use of the image of the “big stick” in the context of the New Deal. I argue that the conservative press in the 1930s used the image to mobilize historical memories of over-reaching executive power and a growing federal government under Teddy Roosevelt to “explain” Franklin Roosevelt in 1932. Further, the “big stick” was used to accuse FDR of a drive for dictatorial power during his attempt to reorganize the Supreme Court in 1937. The article argues that the visual image and symbol of the “big stick” shaped contemporary political debates and mobilized the public in the 1930s, and continues to shape American political discourse, as seen in the use of the symbol in the 2012 election.     

Lost in translation: exploring childhood identity using photo-elicitation

Photo-elicitation is recognised as a visual method which can enhance children’s participation in research and is responsive to childhood experiences. This paper reports on a participatory study which employed photo-elicitation and examines what this method can reveal about research designed to explore children’s identity. Twenty children (6–10 years) were given a digital camera to take pictures ‘all about me’ at home and an after-school club. In addition, parents and practitioners participated in semi-structured interviews. This paper considers the materiality of photo-elicitation and describes the different ways in which children build narratives using photographs as interview prompts. Despite the capacity for photo-elicitation to enable children to take pictures of material things which forge connections to embodied, affective and routine identity processes, this paper critically examines how photographs as material things are made sense of and potentially translated within social practices bounded by power dynamics.     

The bonds that bind: money lending between Anglo-Jewish and Christian women in the plea rolls of the Exchequer of the Jews, 1218–1280

The plea rolls of the Exchequer of the Jews represent the single most important source for understanding the interrelations and interactions of Jewish and Christian women in thirteenth-century England. A uniquely voluminous series of documents pertaining to the bureaucracy that grew up around Jewish lending after 1190, the rolls reveal the many ways in which women of different faiths were brought into contact — both amicable and oppositional — through financial transactions, predominantly the borrowing and lending of money. It further considers the shared family interests, credit networks and daily necessities that such transactions signified. Finally, by examining specific cases — from large scale, national disputes played out in the Exchequer Court to small-scale disagreements in the locality — it seeks to demonstrate how Jewish and Christian women negotiated with one another for economic resources. It concludes that money-lending, complicated by the particularities of kinship and business structures, first brought women of different faiths together and then tore them apart.     

Looking at Interethnic Relations in the Southern Border Through Glass Remains: The NineteenthCentury Pampa Region,Argentina

Arroyo Nieves 2 is an open-air site located in a ravine of a small stream in the Pampa region. Its stratigraphy and archaeological remains assigned it to an aboriginal occupation dated in the third quarter of the nineteenth century. At the time, some indigenous groups were settled in strategic borderline areas by the government, on the basis of reciprocal rights and duties. Food and other supplies were given to the Indians to avoid cattle and women raids, thereby keeping the peace. The findings at Arroyo Nieves 2 include bones, from both domestic and wild species, lithic instruments and debris, fragments of stoneware bottles, refined earthenware sherds, buttons, small pieces of metal and numerous glass remains from wine, beer, bitter, and gin bottles, flasks, glasses, and food containers. This paper presents a study of the glass remains, data that have proven to provide evidence on a wide range of themes, including chronology, trade networks and activities, consumption behaviors, and discard patterns.     

Between heroism and sainthood: New martyr Evgenii Rodionov as a moral model in contemporary Russia

This paper explores the developing cult of a new martyr – the Russian soldier Evgenii Rodionov, killed in 1996 in Chechen captivity, allegedly for his refusal to convert to Islam. I examine how the notion of moral personhood – a capacity to have convictions and values and to stand by them – emerges as a central object of ethical problematization across the disparate narratives of the soldier’s death. I argue that the appeal of the radical model of morality personified by the soldier’s figure reflects a pervasive trend of longing for spirituality in contemporary Russia, which developed in response to the perceived moral collapse that followed the democratic transition. Through investigating how Evgenii’s image is being employed as a public symbol of patriotism and as a private moral exemplar for militaristically oriented young men, this article contributes to the understanding of the entangled relationship among religion, nationalism and conservative morality in contemporary Russia.     

Would Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) be welcomed by undergraduate students to support their learning during fieldwork?

This paper reports student perceptions of the benefits and challenges of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) in a fieldwork context. Student perceptions from six field courses across two institutions have been gathered using questionnaires and focus groups. Whilst a number of studies have focused on BYOD in a classroom context, little research has been undertaken about BYOD in a fieldwork context. The key findings suggest that around one fifth of students were not willing to use their own device during fieldwork citing loss or damage as the main reason. This key challenge is different to that which are found in a classroom which generally focus on network security, connectivity etc. The findings also suggest that some students believe that BYOD can have a negative impact on group work. There is a misalignment here between student and practitioner thinking with previous literature which suggests that practitioners believe BYOD and smart devices can enhance group work. The one key challenge which is found regardless of learning environment is inequality between those who have a device and those who do not.     

Feminism,Praxis, and Human Geography

In this paper, we discuss the methodological implications of combining feminist and geographic research. In feminist research efforts, theory, method, and purpose of research are inextricable. We examine the meaning of this blending for the language, conceptualizations, methods, and scale used in feminist geographic research. Through feminist geographic research, we can build a continuity of women and men as feminist writers inside the academy and in the community. The goal of this more inclusive research and knowledge is the transformation of gendered power relations.