Chinese factor in the space,place and agency of female head porters in urban Ghana

Migrating from northern Ghana to the coastal capital Accra in search of work, female head porters (‘kayayei’) find themselves in social structures and spatial orders that are imbued with various relations of seniority and power that constrain newcomers' entrepreneurial options. Yet, with the recent arrival of Chinese entrepreneurs in the social arena of Accra's marketplace, these power relations and gate-keeping mechanisms have begun to change. In this article, we analyse how female head porters perceive and appropriate the opportunities that arise as a result of the Chinese being seen by both they themselves and others as outsiders to Ghanaian society. By unintentionally enabling head-load carriers to extend their actual and symbolic claims to spatial realms that they were previously excluded from, the Chinese traders are facilitating head porters' expanded role within the social construction of place and space in Ghana's main urban market centre. They are therefore altering the patterns of everyday interactions between these head-load carriers and their environment.     

Providing fun in the ‘world of tourism’: servicing backpackers in Indonesia

Service sector work is a special arena for the formation of gendered subjects because its workers are both service providers and part of the consumed product in the sense that they have to deliver a ‘quality’ product and have the ‘right attitude’ toward customers. Based on repeated qualitative fieldwork, including in-depth interviews with tourism workers in a backpacker tourism enclave in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, this article explores the ways in which tourism work and tourism workers are constructed as gendered subjects. Although women and men might have the same work tasks within tourism, they are positioned differently, and it is not unusual for women to be seen as having a hidden agenda that is assumed to involve sex work. Men are constructed as the norm to which women are compared and consequently perceived as deviating from. Between men and women working in tourism and the western backpackers on which tourism workers depend in order to sustain their livelihoods, relations of class, gender and colonial stereotypes come into play. Tourism workers consider themselves to be seen as providers of fun, which means that they are able to meet the needs of the tourists, whatever those needs might be.     

Course books for environmental perception and related geographical studies

This paper encourages readers to experiment with inquiry-based learning (IBL) in their courses in the interest of identifying more diverse styles of instruction, and developing a wider understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of the methodology. The aims of the paper are to unpack the meanings of IBL, describe some uses of IBL in geography, and discuss their benefits and challenges for students and teachers. IBL is essentially a question-driven, philosophical approach to teaching that involves active, student-centred learning. The teacher acts principally as a facilitator or mentor, guiding and encouraging students through the inquiry process. Examples of IBL are presented, ranging from questioning exercises embedded in the class, through to entire courses or degrees using an inquiry-based approach. Students can benefit greatly from IBL since they are active in the learning process, can have improved understanding, more enjoyable learning, develop valuable research skills, achieve higher-order learning outcomes and perform better academically. Teachers can also benefit through a strengthening of teaching–research links and the clear gains in student engagement and learning. However, in order for IBL to be effective, teachers must be encouraged and supported to take on this facilitating role. When IBL elements are embedded in a more traditional curriculum, particular care needs to be taken so that students and teachers are carefully oriented to the expectations regarding the outcome of learning and teaching in this mode.     

Teaching Time–Space Compression

Time–space compression shows students that geographies are plastic, mutable and forever changing. This paper justifies the need to teach this topic, which is rarely found in undergraduate course syllabi. It addresses the impacts of transportation and communications technologies to explicate its dynamics. In summarizing various conceptual perspectives, the paper illustrates the diverse ways in which it has been theorized. The links between time–space compression and globalization are explored. The paper points to four common pitfalls that plague attempts to teach this issue. It offers five classroom examples through which time–space compression can be taught.     

Benchmark Standards for Geography: A personal review

The Human–Environment Research Observatory (HERO) Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program aimed to develop the next generation of researchers working on place-based human–environment problems. The program followed a cooperative learning model to foster an integrated approach to geographic research and to build collaborative research skills. The program hosted 12–16 students annually, who first engaged in an intensive short course and then formed three- or four-person teams to conduct research in four biophysically and socioeconomically diverse places. The teams used cyberinfrastructure to collaborate and integrate their research and findings. Most of the REU students have opted to attend graduate school and specialize in human–environment research.     

Czechoslovak–Liechtenstein relations in the shadow of the Communist coup in Czechoslovakia,February 1948

When in 1945 the Czechoslovak authorities confiscated the estate of the Princes von und zu Liechtenstein, the two countries became involved in a dispute which had not been resolved until recently, at least on a diplomatic level. For several decades, the 1948 Communist coup d'état in Czechoslovakia dashed the hopes of the Liechtenstein family for a restitution of their confiscated assets. However, officials responsible internally admitted that the property confiscation had been questionable in the case of the Liechtenstein family. The court had not confirmed the confiscation until after the Communist coup. However, the Liechtenstein family did not renounce their claims, and after the collapse of the Communist regime in 1989 they brought them up again.     

From Indenture to “Good Governance”: eMigrate and the Politics of Reforming Global Labour Supply Chains

Contract substitution—in which workers sign one contract but end up working under another—is a common form of fraud faced by Indian low-wage migrant workers working in the Gulf Cooperation Council states. This paper presents a study of workers’ experiences of contract substitution alongside the eMigrate system, which is a digital registration system introduced by the Indian government in 2015. While a stated aim of eMigrate is to protect workers from contract fraud, these practices persist. We explore the colonial genealogies of eMigrate to show that not only has it adapted repertoires of worker protection inherited from the British Empire’s indenture system, but that eMigrate risks facilitating conditions of unfreedom under the mantle of worker protection, much as the British imperial state did during indenture. We contend that recognising how legacies of indentured labour regulation persist through eMigrate has implications for contemporary campaigns for migrant justice.     

Introduction. Anarchism and the national question—historical,theoretical and contemporary perspectives

This article provides an introduction to the themed section ‘Anarchism and the national question—historical, theoretical and contemporary perspectives.’ We discuss first the long and often overlooked engagement of anarchists with the colonial and national liberation question, particularly—but not exclusively—in the heyday of the movement (from the second half of the 19th to the first decades of the 20th century). We discuss in particular the overlaps and tensions between anarchists and republicans (those who favoured republics as opposed to monarchies) and anti-colonial nationalists (anti-colonialists who defended the right of national self-determination). Then we proceed to discuss the potential for a dialogue between anarchist and nationalism studies based on three interventions. First, to problematise the narrative that conflates nations with state-building processes. Second, to better grasp the emergence of alternatives to the nation–state as a historical construct. Third, to complicate narratives that associate in an unproblematic fashion internationalism and classless society. Finally, the introduction highlights the four questions which lie at the core of the themed section and discuss briefly how the papers relate to these.     

The geography of religions: Comparing Buddhist and Taoist sacred mountains in China

Increasing attention has been given to geographical contributions to cultural heritage in religion. However, comparative quantitative research remains scarce. As a first attempt, this study presents findings from comparative spatial and statistical analyses of the geographical distribution and features of mountains in China sacred in Taoism and Buddhism. Because both have strong orientations to natural environments, we find more similarities than differences between them, even though the two religions have different origins, philosophies, and doctrines. The results empirically support the influences of Taoism on Buddhism in China, findings that supplement current understandings of Buddhism in China in terms of the geographical dynamics of integration and sinicisation of Chinese culture. The findings also enrich current debates, including in this journal, emphasising the importance of environmental symbols in studies on geography and religion. Connecting humanity with physical geography in light of the changes, including grief, being wrought in the Anthropocene, we hope to inspire more geographically grounded and methodologically eclectic studies on religions.