Why have generational orderings been marginalised in the social sciences including childhood studies?

ABSTRACT

This paper considers why age and generation tend not to be recognised as social variables in the same way that gender, ethnicity and class are mainstreamed within Social Science disciplines. It questions why the concept of the generational order is not always integral to either Childhood Studies or the related sub-disciplines, such as Children’s Geographies. It begins from a starting point that Childhood Studies is generally a multi-disciplinary field but seems stuck from moving forward conceptually. The politics of Childhood Studies can result in sub-disciplinary silos rather than working in a more interdisciplinary way. The politics of childhood in society have progressed in terms of children’s rights and participation yet the theoretical development of children’s agency has been stuck. The paper discusses the lack of extensive empirical investigation of the generational order, suggesting that ‘generational orderings’ may be a more dynamic way to engage with processes of generationing.     

Adult scurvy in skeletal remains of late 19th century mineworkers in Kimberley,South Africa

Throughout history, scurvy has been a well‐known disease which develops due to restricted resources of fresh fruit and vegetables. The condition results from an extended limited intake of vitamin C. Although skeletal lesions associated with infantile scurvy have been well described by many authors, very little literature is available on adult scurvy and the resulting skeletal lesions. The purpose of this study was to investigate the skeletal remains of a 19th century mining population from Kimberley, South Africa, for any skeletal lesions that may be indicative of adult scurvy. Scurvy was well documented as being extremely prevalent in this population. The skeletal remains of 107 individuals, presumed to have died around 1898, were studied. The majority of these individuals were males between 19 and 45 years of age. It is likely that most individuals were migrant workers at the diamond mines. All bones were visually assessed for macroscopic indications of pathological bone alterations associated with healed scurvy. Bone samples were also taken from ambiguous lesions in order to perform histological investigations. Lesions indicative of possible healed adult scurvy were observed in 16 individuals. These lesions included bilateral ossified haematomas, osteoperiostitic bone changes and periodontal disease. Histological investigation confirmed the presence of ossified haematomas on the anterior tibiae of some individuals. Hospital records and historical documents describing the incidence of scurvy in the local hospitals and the daily diet of the black mine workers supported these findings. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The road to normalization: The importance of the United Arab Emirates' neoliberal foreign policy in the normalization with Israel: 2004–2020

The article discusses the question of why and how the normalization between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel took place and managed to evolve into a peace agreement. It offers an additional explanation to the neorealists' scholarly and commonly accepted argument: that it was only the behavior of the revisionist state of Iran that was the motive for signing the peace agreement between the two states. Furthermore, the article argues that the normalization of relations began in 2004 and could have materialized owing to the UAE's neoliberal foreign policy of focusing on soft power cooperation. It suggests the UAE's internal interests of status, stability, and empowerment, which were incorporated in the Vision 2021 plan, were translated into a foreign policy of international cooperation rather than one of military involvement and alliances. The UAE's long-term strategy reveals a dual neorealist and neoliberal foreign policy with a tendency toward the latter. The neoliberal foreign policy of soft power cooperation attracted the UAE to Israel and, through these shared interests, built trust and eventually led to normalization between the two states. The study covers three periods of the UAE's foreign policy strategy during the development of the normalization process. It begins with the tension between the neoliberal and neorealist strategies from 2004 to 2009, then looks at the increase in tensions between 2010 and 2018, and ends with the focus on the neoliberal foreign policy strategy in 2019–2020.