Masculinity and political geographies in England,Ireland and North America

Historians have recently turned their attention to the place of masculinity in the politics of early-modern England. This essay widens that exploration to include the imperial settings of Ireland and North America. Drawing upon a range of English- and Irish-language sources – including political treatises, maps, state papers and court poetry – it contends that manhood, as a relational value between men, helped structure the form and character of politics in the metropole, the kingdom of Ireland and the American colonies. In all of those settings, the definition of acceptable male behaviour was different, the effect being that political action and theory in each place took on unique features. Consequently, the essay cautions against studying England and its colonies as distinct units of historical analysis and calls for further exploration of the particularities of colonial settings and their influence on the imperial centre. Moreover, the essay aims to demonstrate that masculinity, particularly contest over its proper expression, is an agent in historical change, in this case helping to shape political theory and practice as England developed into a multiple monarchy and budding imperial power in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.     

Between Spectacle and Science: The Aurora in Central Europe, 1870s–1880s

Abstract

The article discusses the return and reception of two Austro-Hungarian arctic expeditions in 1874 and 1883, respectively. Both expeditions conducted extensive auroral research. The article focuses on the media discourse of the time: how the expeditions including their scientific aims and outcomes were perceived in the Viennese press and society. The reception given to each of the expeditions and the manner by which each was covered in the press differed greatly; accordingly, the aurora borealis, a quintessential polar phenomenon itself, was ascribed with strikingly dissimilar meanings in the media. Whereas in 1874 domestic interests were projected onto the Arctic, with the aurora symbolizing the monarchy's bright future, in 1883 media attention focused on local events such as the International Electrical Exhibition in Vienna; the Arctic no longer served as a potent symbol for Austro-Hungarian affairs. Analyses of various forms of media such as texts, poems, and illustrations show the cultural situatedness of scientific knowledge and its popularization. Representations and interpretations of the aurora can only be understood within the political, social, technological and cultural contexts of the time.     

Mortars in context: An integrated study of mortars and plasters from the so-called Ginnasio in Solunto (Sicily,Italy)

This paper presents a multipronged scientific study of mortars and plasters of the so-called Ginnasio in the Hellenistic–Roman city of Solunto (Sicily, Italy). A selection of 16 well-contextualized samples was collected to represent different functions and building phases of this private house. The results show that a variety of locally available raw materials was used as aggregates and to produce binders. The diversity of raw materials’ sources and production techniques identified in this study reveals the advanced technological knowledge of the builders of Solunto, indicating a complex relationship between the settlement's cityscape and its surrounding landscape.     

First evidence of the production of Ginalski E5 button spurs from copper alloy in Central Europe

Ginalski-type E5 button spurs made from a Cu alloy are a characteristic attribute of the Middle Roman period in barbarian Europe. The find of part of a mould made of non-ferrous metal at the Luleč site in the district of Vyškov, Czech Republic, provided key evidence for explaining the issue of their production. The discovery of this unique artefact showed that based on current knowledge, the spurs made from a Cu alloy were also produced in the Middle Danube region and not only in Northeast Europe as had previously been thought.     

Pittite Triumph and Whig Failure in the Cambridge University Constituency, 1780–96*

Cambridge University has been featured in a wide range of studies of the long 18th century, but few have focused exclusively on the dynamics behind its politics. This is surprising since many of the Cambridge University electors were close to leading parliamentarians. The Cambridge University constituency was contested at each of the three successive general elections from 1780 onwards until 1796. Parliamentary contests often brought Cambridge University's political tensions into focus, which is why a detailed analysis of the poll books can demonstrate how different networks within the university behaved and could define the performance of candidates for the constituency. The relationships between the chancellors, vice-chancellors, high stewards, university officers, college heads, fellows, senate members and members of parliament who collectively made up the leadership are fundamental to understanding the electorate of Cambridge University. These relationships, in terms of friendships, alliances and rivalries, also influenced political and patronage networks within the university. William Pitt the Younger's success in changing the political complexion of Cambridge University is part of the broader realignment in British politics during the final two decades of the 18th century. Under the pressure of these events, Whig unity would come to an end as new divisions between ministerialists and reformers emerged. The experience of Cambridge University can shed light on the national shifts as well as how electioneering was carried out in the university parliamentary constituencies.     

Pre-1949 Chinese IR: an occluded history

Chinese scholars have achieved a comprehensive consensus on the disciplinary history of International Relations (IR) in China. However, this collective understanding of the evolution of Chinese IR is problematic because it denies the existence of pre-1949 Chinese IR and mistakenly sets the starting point of Chinese IR to be the mid 1960s, thus providing a progressive image of the IR discipline in China which is historically untenable. This essay rectifies this misunderstanding by reconstructing the history of Chinese IR before 1949. It verifies the existence of pre-1949 Chinese IR by reviewing the IR-relevant institutional setting in Chinese universities before 1949 and comparing the situation before 1949 with that in the mid 1960s, when the three IR departments were established. Further, the essay tentatively explains why pre-1949 Chinese IR has disappeared in the mainstream discourse of the history of Chinese IR. It argues that the interruption of the evolution of IR in China in the early 1950s and the specific power–knowledge interaction mode established in Chinese IR in the late 1950s are the two main causes responsible for the absence of pre-1949 Chinese IR in the history of the IR discipline in China.     

Bringing Metaphysics Back In?

Summary

Ian Hunter has made a name for himself as a critic of German university metaphysics, finding its progeny at work in places where many of us would not even think of looking, for example in the late twentieth-century celebration of theory in the humanities. Some of his recent work has focused on a rather different issue: the methodological task of making intellectual history empirical. Here he builds on Quentin Skinner's rationale for the Cambridge School's efforts to make the history of political thought more properly historical. Skinner's argument draws on the work of R. G. Collingwood, at least in its earlier versions, and on neo-Kantian tendencies in mid-twentieth century Oxford philosophy. Thus, in aligning his methodological programme with Skinner's argument, Hunter may risk bringing elements of university metaphysics back in another form.     

Localising the Australian National Action Plan on Women,Peace and Security: a matter of justice

In the bid for a non-permanent seat on the United Nations (UN) Security Council, the Australian government emphasised international peace and security and Indigenous peoples as two of the eight key elements supporting its nomination. Australia's positive track record in support of the UN Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, including the delivery of an Australian National Action Plan (NAP) along with recognition of historical injustices to Indigenous Australians, was highlighted as a valid and important argument in favour of its nomination. The Australian NAP, however, has all but ignored the local context in its development and application, focusing instead on its commitments abroad. This framing of the Australian NAP is informed, firstly, by the WPS agenda policy framework applying to conflict and post-conflict situations, and, secondly, by its location within the UN mandate, requiring those situations to be internationally recognised. This article applies Nancy Fraser's tripartite justice framework to reveal that the Australian NAP gives rise to the political injustice of ‘misrepresentation’ in relation to intra-state (violent), domestically situated Indigenous–settler relations, which are denied the status of ongoing internationally recognised conflict. The author suggests that the remedy to this injustice is to reframe and recognise the conflict status of Indigenous–settler relations in the localisation of the Australian NAP. This localisation creates openings for Indigenous Australian women to engage with the WPS agenda in meaningful ways.     

Acknowledging economic realities. The CMEA policy change vis-à-vis the European Community, 1970–3

In the early 1970s, the economic consequences of European Community (EC) policies forced the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) to devise its trade policy vis-à-vis the outside world. With the implementation of its Common Commercial Policy, the EC was about to change the rules and conduct of its foreign trade. The East–West trade boom that took off in the 1960s had created significant commercial links, and substantial dependencies, across the Iron Curtain. The smaller members of the CMEA began to advocate an opening up towards the EC due to their fears of worsening trade prospects caused by the new EC policies. After reconsideration of its allies' commercial needs, the Soviet leadership was pressured to change its mind in favour of a common approach vis-à-vis the EC. This article follows the debate within the CMEA Executive Committee on the socialist countries' dependency on the Western market and on the advisability of opening up to the global market. It relies on official CMEA documents as well as Soviet and German Democratic Republic (GDR) policy-making documents. This article analyses the process of socialist integration in connection with the simultaneous developments taking place in their Western European counterparts, and thereby fills a gap in the historiography of Europe in the Cold War.     

Charting the development of social and cultural geography in Mainland China: voices from the inside*

This article provides an overview of the recent development of social and cultural geography in China. It discusses six major bodies of work: cultural areas, cultural diffusion and cultural integration; geographies of ethnic cultures; cultural landscape and cultural economy; place and place-based cultural politics; marginal social groups; and geographies of social injustice. Although social and cultural geography is still located on the periphery of the disciplinary landscape of Chinese human geography, it is nonetheless developing into a noteworthy field of research. We start this review by calling attention to some problems in epistemologies and analytical approaches. Social and cultural geography in China often suffers from an analytical separation between environment and culture as ontologically enclosed entities. Also, it pays insufficient attention to the mutually constitutive relations between the social and the spatial. However, more recent studies have begun to engage with constructionist/poststructuralist approaches, and develop less positivist interpretations of space, social relations and cultural meanings. This review suggests that social and cultural geography in China needs to develop broader research scopes and strengthen theoretical frameworks. It concludes by calling for constructive dialogues between Chinese and Western human geographical scholarships.