The social dynamics of attracting talent in Halifax

The paper reports a case study of factors attracting and retaining talented and creative workers in Halifax, Nova Scotia. All categories of workers interviewed mentioned quality of place and amenities in discussing their location preferences, but that could not fully explain their choices. For some occupations (like health research), talented people followed jobs; in other sectors (like music), talented workers migrated to a sympathetic locale with the right conditions for creative engagement; creative workers in some occupations (like those in architectural, engineering or planning consulting) were more rooted in place. The social dynamics—that is, positive and collaborative social networks within key sectors and a wider community perceived as welcoming and interesting—make this mid‐sized city attractive to talented workers. Local universities and a vibrant music scene generate a mutually reinforcing context that attracted mobile talented and creative workers to the city. Respondents noted Halifax's limited cultural diversity but did not report a perceived lack of tolerance as affecting their choices. In smaller cities, the social dynamics of place and workplace and the quality of life available may play more significant roles than tolerance in attracting and retaining talented workers, challenging a basic assumption of creative cities discourse.     

L’impossible constitution d’une théorie générale des machines ?

Three projects on the theories of machines are presented: “mecanology” of the architect Jacques Laffite (1932) inspired by biological evolution; “mecanical analysis ” of Louis Couffignal, a specialist in computing machines (1938), which pre figures functional analysis, and the algebraic theory of machines by the mathematician Jacques Riguet (beginning of the 1950’s). During those years, the three men are members of the Circle of Cybernetic Studies. The article focuses on the dialogue between projects, the axes of unification and divergence, and the styles, strategies and postulates of these three candidates, for generalization converging toward the reference constituted by cybernetics.     

Neoliberalism and the Aestheticization of New Middle‐Class Landscapes

Abstract: If according to Terry Eagleton (The Ideology of the Aesthetic 1990:28), the aesthetic is from the start “a contradictory, double‐edged concept”, how are seemingly innocent acts of viewing and consuming aesthetically pleasing landscapes implicated in the neoliberal politics of urban restructuring? Using contemporary Shanghai as a case study, this paper critically examines the role of the aesthetic in the politics of exclusion and urban segregation in post‐Socialist Shanghai where the restructuring and commodification of erstwhile public welfare housing have led to the rapid development of private “middle‐class” gated enclaves. A central objective of this paper is to excavate the underlying cultural politics of neoliberalism and demonstrate how the aestheticization of urban spaces in Shanghai has become increasingly intertwined with and accentuated by neoliberal ideologies and exclusionary practices in the city. Imbricated in the pristine neighborhoods of Shanghai's gated communities are the fault lines of social division and class distinction that are rapidly transforming urban China.     

Situating middle class identities: American college women of South Asian descent

This article explores the ways in which American college women of South Asian descent discuss their positioning as middle class. The article analyses participants' talk around class as evidence of embeddedness in American class discourses and a complex and contradictory scheme of identification that implicates other identities like gender, race and culture. Respondents often articulated class using the American Dream, where the social capital their parents immigrated with is left unexamined in favour of a narrative of ‘rags to riches’. Young women also used other constructs like ‘stability’, ‘race’ and ‘resources’ to make reference to class, but also to participate in an American discursive silence around it. Finally, the notion of a drive towards professionalism as an immigrant goal is examined, and it is suggested that this serves to further deflect discussions of class. This article synthesises theories of diaspora, ‘translocational positioning’ and habitus, and examines the production of American class discourse as a performance of an American middle class habitus.     

Performing Academic Practice: Using the Master Class to Build Postgraduate Discursive Competences

How can we find ways of training PhD students in academic practices, while reflexively analysing how academic practices are performed? The paper's answer to this question is based on evaluations from a British–Nordic master class. The paper discusses how master classes can be used to train the discursive skills required for academic discussion, commenting and reporting. Methods used in the master class are: performing and creative arts pedagogical exercises, the use of written provocations to elicit short papers, discussion group exercises, and training in reporting and in panel discussion facilitated by a meta-panel discussion. The authors argue that master classes have the potential to further develop advanced-level PhD training, especially through their emphasis on reflexive engagement in the performance of key academic skills.     

Risk and Private Military Work

Abstract: To date geography has paid scant attention to private military contracting. Other disciplines have studied the topic, but their work is state‐centric. In this paper I examine private military contracting through a geoeconomic lens and make four arguments. First, the heightened security risks of the contemporary era cannot be explained solely as a result of states’ decision to cede their monopolies over the means of violence. We must also examine the private military firms that have created new monopolies and the strategies they use to manage and distribute risk. Second, the industry has increased risk in the world system by offloading security risks onto their employees. This “responsibility over rights” management model provides inadequate human rights training and battlefield adjudication procedures for contractors and civilians alike. Third, the geography of private military work does not always conform to the global division of labor between north and south. Instead, private military work creates a class of work that cuts across social and geographic divides. Finally, while activists should encourage states to regulate the industry, they should also push it to reform employment practices since private military firms are increasingly global in scope.     

Female subjugation and political resistance: from literati to entrepreneurial masculinity in the globalizing era of postsocialist China

Drawing on 24 months of ethnographic research on karaoke bar hostesses and male clients, in this article I seek to illustrate the ways in which entrepreneurial masculinity is constructed, enacted and performed in the space of bars, in the location of Dalian, during the globalizing era of China. This article not only examines the historical processes that have helped produce the entrepreneurial masculinities in postsocialist China, but also the nuanced ways in which the place of Dalian, the Chinese state, and the space of bars have facilitated the production of entrepreneurial masculinities articulated in everyday activities. Such an exploration contributes to the literature on the spatial politics of geographic knowledge production and the geographical understandings of the salience of masculinities and femininities, the potency of place and the impact of the politics and the economy on social relationships.     

The Protestant working class in Belfast: education and civic erosion – an alternative analysis

This paper explores and reassesses the issues of social decline, educational underachievement and civic erosion in relation to the Protestant working class in Belfast. Prior to the ‘Troubles’ the Protestant working class in Belfast had at its heart a civic-mindedness which was in tune with working-class communities across the UK at the time. This civic-mindedness encouraged the growth of extended communities and placed an importance on church attendance and educational achievement; something which has been conveniently ignored in most analyses. Owing to population movements in Greater Belfast which followed the violence that followed the introduction of internment without trial in August 1971 Protestant church congregations dwindled and school attendances dropped significantly. The paper ultimately seeks to provide a ‘long view’ of the Protestant working-class experience in order to assist those who are concerned with the problems facing it in the current era.     

Doing Independent Overseas Fieldwork 1: Practicalities and pitfalls

This article explores issues of scalability and sustainability in distance learning. The authors kept detailed records of time they spent teaching a course in geographic information science via the World Wide Web over a six-month period, during which class sizes averaged 49 students. The authors also surveyed students' satisfaction with the distance learning course through ratings and open-ended questions. Findings are compared with similar data collected a year earlier, when class sizes associated with the same distance learning course averaged 18 students. In response to the increase in average class size by a factor of 2.7, the authors' course-related workloads increased by a factor of about 2.5 (from 47.5 hours to 116.7 hours total). Analyses of student feedback suggest that student satisfaction with the course was high overall and suffered no significant decline as a result of increased instructional efficiency.