Another Brick in the Wall: Mudbrick Construction at the Iron Age II Site of Hili 2 (Emirate of Abu Dhabi,United Arab Emirates)

The Iron Age II site of Hili 2 (Emirate of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates) is remarkable because of its preservation. The initial excavations, begun in the 1970s, unearthed mudbrick walls preserved in places two meters high. Fieldwork recommenced at Hili 2 in 2018 and as part of this effort the previously exposed architecture was re‐examined. Of particular interest were three collapsed mudbrick walls that were excavated in order to conserve the surrounding architecture. The walls were removed course by course, providing new insight into mudbrick construction and raising questions about the social organisation of Iron Age settlements.     

The Waste Commons in an Emerging Resource Recovery Waste Regime: Contesting Property and Value in Melbourne's Hard Rubbish Collections

Practices of scavenging of Melbourne's hard rubbish collections are examined in the context of an emerging resource recovery waste regime linked with policy shifts that promote resource recovery over disposal through landfill. Waste regimes have many parallels with regimes in natural resource management and contestations over property are an important but neglected aspect. Based on research conducted primarily in the south eastern suburbs of Melbourne, I argue that hard rubbish on the kerb‐side forms an informal ‘waste commons’ that facilitates various forms of revaluing of municipal household waste. Results of a survey conducted by householders scavenging of their own hard rubbish piles suggest that informal scavenging activities were more effective for diverting waste from landfill by recycling than the formal processes of council hard rubbish contractors. Interviews conducted with residents, waste management contractors and self identified ‘professional’ scavengers revealed different perspectives on the waste commons and highlighted the contested nature of property in hard rubbish. Together with the survey findings, they allow tentative conclusions to be drawn about the role of the waste commons in the transition from a regime of disposal through landfill to one focused on resource recovery.     

How Road Traffic Injuries Affect Household Welfare in Cambodia Using the Millennium Development Goals Benchmarks

This paper reveals the welfare costs of traffic injuries in Cambodia at the beginning of a decade in which greater research and resources will be focused on road safety. The results quantify how road traffic injuries affect progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) using survey data from 100 Cambodian households. The median age of the police-reported casualties was 28 years and 68 per cent were male. In terms of poverty (MDG1), injuries resulted in a 21 per cent loss of income for the 542 household residents. The poorest households, and those with a seriously injured resident, were worst affected. Primary education (MDG2) drop-out rates were eight times the province average. The gender (MDG3) income gap widened by 28 per cent, whilewomen bore 88 per cent of the burden of care for the injured. In terms of child health and mortality (MDG4), 31 per cent of respondents reported adeterioration in child health, while 24 per cent of respondents reported a deterioration in maternal health (MDG5). The households reported rates of priority diseases (MDG6) at twice the national average. Environment (MDG7) outcomes included increased wood fuel use and stagnation in improving drinking water access, with no apparent development partnership (MDG8) to address the negative welfare impacts of road traffic injury.     

中部农区农户打工距离研究——以河南三个样本村为例

对农户打工距离和区位的研究是认识农民工流动空间规律的基础。通过对河南省三个不同类型样本村的实证研究,发现打工距离整体分散、局部集中,打工人数随距离的变化呈"U"型分布,打工者在打工目的地的分布上具有群聚特征。影响农户打工距离选择的主要因素是年龄、家庭类型、家庭代数、上学人数和关系网络因子。年龄较大者、家庭类型较简单者、家庭代数较多者、上学人数较多者和关系网络较少者,选择在本地打工的概率较大,反之亦然。     

EARNING A LIVING ON THE MARGINS: BEGGING, STREET WORK AND THE SOCIO-SPATIAL EXPERIENCES OF CHILDREN IN ADDIS ABABA

This paper explores the everyday life experiences of boys and girls who beg on the streets in Addis Ababa. Based on seven months of child-focused research, it discusses begging as an often overlooked but crucial aspect of social reproduction in which children earn resources in order to contribute towards their household livelihoods. It is argued that child beggars are not passive victims of their circumstances, but are aware of the fact that begging is not a perpetual predicament in their lives. Moreover, the activity of begging is complex and fluid, and is based on the changing nature of the children's experiences, livelihoods and socio-economic conditions. Age, gender, social maturity and availability (or lack) of alternative income-generating strategies are important variables shaping both their spatio-temporal participation in and withdrawal from the activity. The perception of the public towards the children's involvement in begging and the children's own perceptions and reactions to it differ. The findings suggest that, as opposed to most children who construct their engagement as shikella , or simply business, the public has an ambivalent attitude, associating children with aspects of the culture of poverty, and considering them either 'at' risk or 'as' risks. The study concludes that interventions to improve these children's lives need to take more seriously their transient experiences, resources and social skills.     

Household knights,chamber knights and king’s knights: the development of the royal knight in fourteenth-century England

The fourteenth century witnessed a considerable change in the way in which knights were retained in royal service in England. The system of retaining ‘household knights’, which had been in operation since at least the twelfth century, gave way to a new system based around the retaining of ‘chamber knights’ and ‘king’s knights’. These new ranks were retained in different ways to the household knights and often performed different functions. Consequently, the place they occupied in fourteenth-century kingship was markedly different. Despite the significance of this development, the scholarship on it has been limited and often contradictory. This article offers a detailed reassessment of how and why this development occurred and what its impacts were for the fourteenth-century polity.     

‘Remember the Sabbath’: a history of technological decisions and innovation in Orthodox Jewish communities

ABSTRACT

The relationship of Modern Orthodox Jewish communities to technology is mediated by the calendar, following requirements to keep the Sabbath holy. As nineteenth-, twentieth-, and twentyfirst-century inventions reshaped work, public spaces, and domestic living, rabbis intensely debated whether, how, and why observant Jewish people should avoid using electric switches, kitchen appliances, elevators, and other everyday devices on the Sabbath. To justify their decisions, rabbis interrogated minute technical details of these objects. Sabbath prohibitions promoted innovation, as rabbis collaborated with Jewish engineers to create what they judged to be Sabbath-compliant adaptions of everyday technologies. Given that prominent rabbis often disagreed about proper technology use on the Sabbath, Jewish families had the opportunity to decide for themselves what counted as authentic devotion in handling personal and domestic technologies.     

Black Rod and the Office of Usher of the Parliament Chamber

The gentleman usher of the black rod has long been acknowledged as an officer of the house of lords. Yet he was in origin an officer of the order of the Garter with no necessary connection with parliament. This note aims to throw light on the process whereby this association came about. By 1509, the house of lords had the services of an usher of the parliament chamber, a post always held in conjunction with an office in the royal household. By 1558, this post was being exercised by one of the gentlemen ushers daily waiters, who had been granted the office of black rod as an additional perquisite in 1554. From this point it became customary for the offices of black rod, daily waiter and usher of the parliament chamber to be held by one man. This association was broken in 1620, when the then usher relinquished the office of daily waiter but retained his parliamentary functions together with the office of black rod. In 1631, a decree was promulgated annexing the office of black rod to that of one of the gentlemen ushers daily waiters but it was only from 1660 that this became fully effective.     

社会—生态系统重构背景下农户适应行为及影响机理

随着全球气候变化与可持续性科学发展，适应性研究逐渐成为国际社会关注的热点。农户适应性为可持续生计研究提供了新视角。本文基于社会-生态系统重构背景，从农户视角出发，通过构建农户适应作用分析框架来探讨民勤绿洲地区农户适应行为选择及其影响因素交互效应，厘清农户适应性影响机理。研究结果表明：①以生态治理恢复、农业种植结构调整为主导的政府政策实施重构了乡村社会-生态系统，推动农户生计适应策略变化。②农户生计适应性行为以农业调整为主，被动适应行为选择较少，外出打工成为未来生计趋势。③系统外部影响因素中有效灌溉率（水资源状况）是交互作用的核心因素，左右农户生计适应选择。农户适应行为选择主要受系统内部自然资本、劳动力资本与认知水平、金融资本以及社会关系网络因素影响。④农户资本内部结构与储量的差异是适应行为选择多元化的内在动力，以生态恢复主导的政府计划性适应管理是农户适应行为选择的外在推力。生计资本及系统内外部要素交互作用的综合影响推动农户适应行为发展与变化。