Spaces of safety and more-than-safety in women’s refuges in England

Many women escaping domestic violence spend time in women’s refuges (shelters) whilst they deal with practical and emotional issues in a safe space. Such spaces are therefore an important place for women’s recovery and empowerment after abuse, but are also complex spaces of displacement. In the UK, there is a wide range of refuge providers, and different models of accommodation and support provision in refuges. Differences, such as those between refuges providing self-contained flats and those with communal facilities and communal activities, can provide very different experiences for the women and their children who live there. In addition, there have been shifts in the policy context of refuges, and increasingly individualistic models of service provision. This article explores women’s refuges as spaces of safety, and of more-than-safety, drawing on interviews with women in the Midlands, South Coast and London, and on participatory creative groupwork with women in the Midlands and South Coast. Refuge spaces require, but also enable, contact and encounter between women; and communal living and group processes can enable interaction and collaboration between women. The article draws on women’s words and images to exemplify these experiences, concluding that the safe spaces of women’s refuges can enable processes of more-than-safety. These collective processes begin to counteract the isolation of abuse and to help prepare women for their lives after the refuge.     

Unsettled peace? The territorial politics of roadbuilding in post-war Sri Lanka

This paper analyses the role of roadbuilding as a process of state territorialisation in post-war Sri Lanka. In the aftermath of a brutal civil war (1983–2009), and in lieu of a broader peace and reconciliation process between Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim communities, road infrastructure has been promoted by the state as essential to the region's recovery and nation's sovereignty. Roads were to bring national unity and political integration. We interrogate such claims, drawing on fieldwork conducted in Jaffna and neighbouring areas to cast doubt on the prospects of new roads to ameliorate ethnic tensions. Rather, as militarised security discourses and policies continue to dominate the Sri Lankan public sphere, such schemes can be understood as part of broader Sinhala-Buddhist nationalist project to consolidate territorial control in restive parts of the country. Our research suggests that, rather than facilitating rehabilitation and recovery, road networks mirror pre-existing fault lines and entrench the privileged position of the military in Sri Lankan society. Such shifts do little to avail persistent minority sentiments of political marginalisation, aggravating social fractures and re-constituting the hegemony of Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism.     

Is a pixel worth 1000 words? Critical remote sensing and China's Belt and Road Initiative

As a novel means of researching China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), this article advances a critical remote sensing agenda that connects the view from above provided by satellite imagery with the grounded, qualitative methodologies more typical of political geography such as ethnographic fieldwork. Satellite imagery is widely used to produce empirics relating to the BRI, and the Chinese state is showing increasing interest in applying Earth observation data to governance. A more critical approach attentive to the politics of remote sensing, especially in light of China's emergence as a space and satellite power and its embrace of big data, is needed to more precisely reveal what changing pixels represent on the ground and expose the potential issues with data captured from high above the planet. This paper offers three theoretical and methodological objectives for critical remote sensing. First, I reflect on the geopolitics involved in the production and analysis of satellite imagery. Second, through analysis of night light imagery, which captures illuminated anthropogenic activities, I interrogate metanarratives of development. Third, I engage with qualitative methods by “ground-truthing” remote sensing with ethnographic observations along China's borders. I also seek to avoid the methodological nationalism often present in remote sensing research by situating these mixed-methods case studies at scales above and below the nation-state. As one of the largest development interventions in history materializes, pursuing critical remote sensing can create opportunities for social scientists to leverage quantitative and geospatial methods in support of more equitable and sustainable futures.     

Gender,Perceptions of Safety and Strategic Responses among Ohio University Students

Research on perceptions of safety in public spaces must seek a balance between paying careful attention to the effects of gender, while challenging simplistic notions of a dichotomy of fearful women and fearless men. In a study of perceptions of safety among undergraduate students at the Ohio State University, this principle was addressed by decentering fear as the object of study and focusing instead on the various strategies that women and men use to manage their perceptions of safety—including avoidance of certain situations (for example, being in specific places, or going outside after dark), precautionary measures, and assertions of confidence. Questionnaire responses and follow-up interviews indicated that most students usually felt safe on campus; however, women were more likely than men to have felt unsafe. Students used a wide range of strategies to make themselves feel safer, from staying home after dark to formulating plans for self-defense to telling themselves they had nothing to fear. While a focus on strategic responses illuminated areas of overlap in men's and women's experiences, gender differences were also striking. Men are unlikely to rely on avoidance strategies, while some women view self-imposed restrictions on activity as normal and necessary. Furthermore, many men are unwilling or unable to relate to questions about fear and safety, explicitly or implicitly reinscribing fear as a ‘women's issue’.     

天宝十三载封常清在交河郡的行程

吐鲁番阿斯塔那506号墓中出土的一批马料文卷,其中有几件是天宝十三载(754)交河郡柳谷馆、石舍馆、礌石馆、银山馆的马料帐,文书中记录了封常清在交河郡的行程.学界对此多有探讨,但均未考证出其中几件缺名马料帐之驿馆名称和地点,对封常清行程存在较多误解.实际上,四驿馆记载封常清在天宝十三载(754)往返北庭、安西并途经交河...     

旅游危机管理:构建目的地层面的动态框架

安全是一个目的地、区域或国家发展旅游业的基本条件,也是旅游增长的基本决定因素。目的地处于危急事件中时,其旅游业的发展受到旅游者自身决策以及国家或社会组织对待和处理危机事件的政策或手段的影响,会陷于低迷。本文对目的地旅游业受危机事件影响的机理进行了分析,设计旅游危机决策链,从而构建动态的、有机联系的旅游危机管理战略框架。     

空间信息技术在茶马古道遗产保护管理中的应用初探

空间信息技术近年来在文化遗产保护领域发挥了巨大的作用,在大遗址、运河遗产、长城资源等文化遗产调查、保护和管理中得到了广泛的应用.茶马古道作为特殊的线性文化遗产,所经之处受自然环境和地理条件的影响,对其保护和调查都存在很大的难度.而空间信息技术由于其全天时、全天候、覆盖范围广、信息化程度高、不需要人亲临现场的特点,在文化资源调查和管理中发挥巨大的作用,可以适应这一特殊要求.本文通过对茶马古道在保护和规划中对空间信息技术的需求进行了分析,探讨了空间信息技术在茶马古道文化遗产资源的调查、保护、规划及管理中的应用.     

20世纪60年代中加小麦贸易对中国的重要意义

1960年中国首次从加拿大进口粮食度荒,并由此改变此前的粮食自给自足现状。中 加小麦贸易不仅可以巩固粮食安全、促进农业改革,也可使中国重返加拿大与西方市场,使外贸渠 道多样化,同时还促进了中加建交、打破美国的封锁孤立政策。     

丝绸之路的象征符号——骆驼

被誉为”沙漠之舟”的骆驼,在北朝至唐代塑像、壁画中频频出现,通常由胡人牵引,满载货物、用具,它们的形态、组合、驮载的物品等,暗示着当时社会的变迁和人们观念的更新,其图像成为“丝绸之路”的象征符号。“胡人”与“骆驼载货”的组合反映出不同国家和地区的商品的交流、信仰观念的传播、不同的文明的碰撞融合,蕴育出了以“胡汉”相融为特色的唐文化。