Queering rurality: reading The Miseducation of Cameron Post geographically

This paper contributes to research on geographies of queer rural youth through an analysis of an award-winning young adult novel, The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Danforth (2012a. The Miseducation of Cameron Post. New York: Harper Collins). Three themes from the text are explored in this paper. The first is the well documented heterosexism of rural life. We note that the main protagonist, Cameron Post, experiences rural life on the margins, not only because of her queer identity but also because of her age and gender. A second theme in Danforth’s text is that rural spaces can be transgressively queer. In this respect the author subverts conflations of rurality and heterosexuality and urbanity and homosexuality as well as universalising notions of rurality as static, repressive and exclusive. The final theme emerging from a geographical reading of the text is that of placelessness. While highlighting the pervasiveness of this theme, we note that it elicits criticism from readers in relation to the book’s ending as it departs from the norms of familiar coming-out-narratives. In conclusion, we emphasise the efficacy of young adult literature as a source for furthering geographic knowledge about young people and sexuality.     

农村市场参与者的特征和行为感应分析

将行为方法引入到农村市场的研究中来是十分必要的。作者以行为理论为基础,通过详细的调查研究,揭示了区域性农村市场上消费者和商人的行为特征及其感应和偏好。     

中国北方地区龙山时代聚落的变迁

黄河流域的龙山时代对于考察复杂社会的发展是极其重要的。因为在中国,考古学被认为是一门历史学科,许多关于龙山时代的研究涉及到对后来夏、商、西周的先行文化的识别。与之相关的另一重要问题是中...     

Integrated GIS,remote sensing and geomorphologic approaches for the reconstruction of the landscape habitation of Thessaly during the neolithic period

The aim of this study is to manifest the contribution of integrated approaches such as GIS, geomorphology, remote sensing and DEM analysis for the detection of neolithic settlements, the modeling of habitation and the reconstruction of neolithic landscape in the area of Thessaly.     

Rural drinking water governance politics in China: Governmentality schemes and negotiations from below

This paper examines the politics of rural water governance in China through a governmentality lens and village water intervention case. The China Rural Drinking Water Safety Project (RDWSP) was an attempt to control water, while also serving as a tool of power to impel the rural population towards national development goals. The authors analyzed official documents and conducted interviews in a village in Shandong Province to investigate the RDWSP's rationale and practices, as well as how water access and management were negotiated by rural water users. The paper argues that (1) confronted with a decline in local governance capacity and in an effort to rectify the mistakes of the supply-driven, technocratic paradigm, the RDWSP attempted to integrate social, environmental and economic concerns but did not achieve that goal; (2) the decline in local governance capacity and people's pragmatic everyday strategies contributed to an individualized approach to solving water problems, reflected in people's disengagement from the government project and local participation, an effect that may sustain people's marginalization and exclusion from good-quality water access and management. Using the Chinese water project as an example, the paper contributes to the debate on state-induced water control versus civil society “counter-conduct” formed by daily interactions. Furthermore, it enriches the study of politics in general by presenting the state as a site of contested institutionalization and ongoing negotiations, confronted by everyday narratives and encounters with marginalized citizens that go far beyond and are far more complex than overt resistance or covert weapons of the weak.     

Using the Rural Atelier as an Educational Method in Landscape Studies

Drawing on experiences from a project conducted in the ‘Drentsche Aa’ area in the Netherlands, this article discusses the concept of the ‘rural atelier’ as a form of problem-based learning. The rural atelier principle was used originally in rural development planning and described as such by Foorthuis (2005) and Elerie and koopman (2008). Here, we discuss it in the context of landscape education. Experiences from a case study project are presented.     

The liminality in popular festivals: identity,belonging and hedonism as values of tourist satisfaction

Abstract

A Festa do Boi is a festive celebration linked to the Catholic liturgical calendar, which is celebrated in Allariz (Galicia-Spain). This festival reappears in the 1980s and like other popular festivals, it collects traditional elements and re-builds them into a new festive ritual, more in line with the new temporal and spatial configuration of the late 20th century. They are festivals in which tradition is combined, in representation of the local community, and the tourist approach (Prats, 1997 Prats, L. L. (1997). Antropología y patrimonio. Madrid: Alianza. [Google Scholar]). This event can be analysed as a spontaneous communitas (Turner, 1974a Turner, V. (1974a). Dramas, fields and metaphors. New York: Cornell University Press. [Google Scholar]), a happening between hosts and guests (Smith, 1992 Smith, V. L. (1992). Anfitriones e invitados (Turismo y sociedad). Madrid: Endymion. [Google Scholar]), where the liminal space can be occupied by tourists as ‘others’ necessary for the identification of ‘ourselves’. The participation of tourists in the festive ritual is carried out from two liminal positions: an unstable state because their daily life has been broken by the movement and involvement required in the festivals with the role of equals, but different. Both actors are required for the exaltation of collective identity. The level of satisfaction of tourists with the liminal experience based on the feeling of belonging and identification with the host community and the hedonistic perception, to provide a more holistic view of the festive ritual. A self-administered on-site survey was conducted on 393 tourists attending the 700th edition of A Festa do Boi in Allariz (Spain). The results suggest that hedonism acts as a precedent for satisfaction evaluation, and satisfaction evaluation for the attendees´ future intentions. In addition, the liminal experience has a two-dimensional structure composed of the individual changes experienced and of the festive ritual.     

Rural settlement and economic development in Southern Italy: Troia and its contado, c.1020 - c.1230

The history of urban life in Southern Italy during the eleventh and twelfth centuries was particularly disjointed. At varying points many of the regions' cities were subject to the domination of petty Lombard princes, Byzantine emperors, Norman dukes and, as one passes into the twelfth century, Sicilian kings and German emperors. This paper uses the case of the northern Apulian city of Troia to show that, below this surface of political discontinuity, it is possible to discern a different understanding of an urban history. In highlighting the significance of the economic development of Troia's surrounding territory and the manner in which this created a damaging rivalry with the neighbouring settlement of Foggia, this essay emphasises the need to take into account local (and not only wider-ranging political) influences on the shaping of medieval south Italian urban life. In this context the paper also considers the importance of the development of a stable local government and a burgeoning civic conscience at Troia.     

Rural geographical research: working in rural places and with rural communities

ABSTRACT

Across a number of disciplines at the University of Aberdeen, there is a long tradition of research focused upon the interrogation of issues associated with rural places and rural communities. Since the mid-1960s, rural geographical research has been a prominent component of the research undertaken by academic staff in Geography. Drawing upon an analysis of the large corpus of ‘rural’ publications arising from this scholarly enterprise, this paper presents a chronologically structured overview of how rural geographical research at Aberdeen has reflected developments in, and contributed to, the evolution of the sub-discipline of rural geography.