Modernization, welfare and 'third way' politics: limits to theorizing in 'thirds'?

The current period of welfare reform in British politics is taking place within a discourse of modernization described in terms of a 'third way'. The ideas which constitute this discourse resonate with recent developments within human geography, namely a movement to theorizing 'in-between' spaces, a turn to culture and to issues of globalization. This paper suggests that welfare reform is a restructuring project which allows the nature of thinking and acting 'in thirds' to be questioned. It problematizes the 'third way' approach to cultural modernization and economic globalization as a de-politicized discourse, and argues for the cultural politics and political economics which underpin welfare reform to be foregrounded. As a form of political discourse analysis, it points to the developing need for a welfare geography that is attuned to the languages and practices through which dominant systems of social and economic distribution are constituted.     

英国贵族阶级属性和等级制的演变

在一千多年的历史中 ,就阶级属性而言 ,英国先后出现了原始部落军事贵族、封建贵族、资本主义土地贵族、工商业资产阶级贵族和中产阶级“工党贵族”;而贵族等级制和名号的变化则主要有五次 :先后在盎格鲁 -撒克逊时期、诺曼征服之后、1 4— 1 5世纪、1 7世纪初和 1 958年。     

Place-based corporate hegemony: General Electric in Tell City, Indiana, 1943–1947

This paper examines the dynamics behind the selling of a federally owned World War II factory in Tell City, Indiana in 1946 and 1947. The federal agency charged with disposing of wartime plant, the War Assets Administration, reversed its decision to sell the factory to a small innovative company, Electra-Voice, selling it instead to the giant electrical equipment manufacturer, General Electric. What would make federal administrators who were part of a powerful liberal state apparatus committed to economic competition and anti-monopoly change their mind? The answer lies in what I call place-based corporate hegemony. Probing the material consequences of everyday action, place-based corporate hegemony revolves around the formation of alliances based on axiomatic values, the continued appeal of these values, the redistribution of symbolic and material resources, and the incorporation of threatening elements. Deploying a range of archival materials I show how the concerted efforts of the community, business organizations, politicians and unions as well as General Electric to question the initial decision forced the state to rethink and change its decision.     

阶层流动:美甲师的空间策略与身份协商

本文以广州中高端美甲店为案例地,采用质性研究方法,探讨美甲师的职业特性对其阶层与身份的建构与重构,以及其在不同空间转换下所进行的身份协商与阶层流动。研究发现：①在工作空间中,美甲师通过物质装饰刺激、身体消费规训以及与顾客的人际互动,激发了对城市高阶层的窥视欲望与现象模仿,实现了具化的阶层想象;②在城市空间中,美甲师通过身体与符号两个方面的消费"示同",无法实现身份重构与阶层流动,迫使她们采取"返回来源地"的空间策略;③在来源地空间中,美甲师通过展演"城市人"的日常消费、创业与改变居住地三方面的消费"示异",实现自我身份的转变与阶层跨越。研究拓展了阶层流动与女性地理学的跨学科研究视野。     

Bringing politics into class analysis: state power and class formation in post-Mao China

Traditional class theories invariably embrace the ‘proposition of economism’, either extruding politics from the causality of class formation or treating politics as epiphenomenal. Similar ideas of class inform much of the literature on class in the People's Republic of China (PRC). This article contends that social stratification and class formation in post-Mao China cannot be fully understood without recognising state power as a critical determinant of life chances and a major organising principle in the country's class map due to the authoritarian nature of the Party-state and the ubiquity of state power in the economic sphere. It proceeds to illustrate the part that state power plays at the macro and micro levels in the production and reproduction of class.     

The Spa‐cial Formation Theory: Transcending the Race–Class Binary in Environmental Justice Literature

Two schools have dominated environmental justice literature: the race school and the class school. The class school tends to explain cases of environmental injustice exclusively from the vantage point of socioeconomic differences. The race school, however, foregrounds racism as an explanatory framework, while still acknowledging the relative role of class in this regard. Both schools tend to base their analyses primarily upon research findings from empirical/geographical studies. This paper joins its voice with the recently growing body of literature that has started to call for the need to transcend this cumbersome race–class dichotomy and move beyond the mundane pattern of case studies research and statistical data gathering. Specifically, it propounds a theory of spa‐cial formation that illuminates the parallel processes of spatial discrimination and racial subjugation, stresses the historical contingency of environmental racism, and highlights the role of the various cultural images, representations and meanings attached to black geographies in laying the moral and ideational foundations facilitating the process of spatial and environmental discrimination against African Americans.     

‘Watching like a hawk’: gendered parenting in automobilized urban spaces

The growing interest in automobility theory and feminist perspectives on daily mobility points to the importance of considering parental mobility care of children. Hanson (2010, Gender, Place & Culture 17(1), 5–23) argues that feminists have long known that gender and mobility are bound together but have not sufficiently examined their contexts. The article extends this approach in its exploration of parental mobility care practices. It illustrates how automobility constructs disciplined parental practices to immobilize and safeguard children. Conversely, it shows how parental mobility care practices use, generate and resist automobility. These practices, the article argues, are deeply embedded within contexts of gender and automobility that (re)produce social inequalities. This analysis, which emerged out of our qualitative, interpretive approach, suggests new ways of thinking about automobility and parenting in relation to one another. The research is based on in-depth interviews with parents located in four urban areas in Vancouver, British Columbia.     

Balbuena's Grandeza mexicana and the American Georgic

Bernardo de Balbuena’s Grandeza mexicana (1604) stands between two worlds. One of the earliest and most spectacular poetic celebrations of the wonders of the city of Mexico, this text was addressed both at the American and the Spanish audience, producing a duplicitous message. The capital of New Spain is presented as one of the most loyal and productive colonies of the Hispanic empire, though it is also celebrated for its economic autonomy and cultural supremacy with regards to the metropolis. These dualisms are also noticeable in the poetic style of Balbuena’s work, which, following the traditional idea of the Wheel of Virgil, adopts old classical models to portray the New World whilst anticipating Baroque poetics. Following the example of Virgil, Balbuena fashioned his literary career as a process organised in three distinct evolutionary stages, beginning with a bucolic text, Siglo de Oro en las selvas de Erífile, and culminating with an epic poem, El Bernardo. Grandeza stood between these two, adapting the rural setting of the Georgics to an urban context, and offering an idealised account of the Virgilian praise of human industry, which placed Balbuena and the other members of the lettered class on the forefront of Mexican society.     

Metropolis on the margins: talent attraction and retention to the St. John's city‐region

The objective of this research is to examine the factors that influence the attraction and retention of creative and highly educated workers in a small‐sized Canadian city. The study examines two hypotheses: that the social dynamics of city‐regions constitute the foundations of economic success in the global economy; and, that talented, highly educated individuals will be attracted to those city‐regions that offer a richness of employment opportunity, a high quality of life, a critical mass of cultural activity and social diversity. The hypotheses are explored through in‐depth interviews with creative and highly educated workers, employers and intermediary organizations. The evidence from the interviews suggests mixed support for the hypotheses. In view of these findings, we contend that the specificities of place must be more carefully theorized in the creative class literature and be more carefully considered by policy‐makers designing policies directed towards attracting and retaining talented and highly educated workers.