Being(s) in relation at home: socio-natures of patio ‘gardens’ in Managua,Nicaragua

Human–nature relations of home have been gaining more attention in geography, especially in the study of gardens. This article contributes to this growing literature, but in contrast to much research, it examines human–nature relations in the patios (garden) of homes in a marginalized barrio (slum) of Managua, Nicaragua. I suggest that the human–nature relations in these patios need to be understood differently than those in North American and European gardens. Based on research carried out in Managua, I argue that such relations are at the centre of everyday domestic activities and are critical in producing home as a liveable space in the city. The article draws on feminist geographic understandings of home and current work around human–environment relations, and identifies three different sets of socio-ecological relations: corporeal, aesthetic and economic. It argues that these three different relations between humans and the plants and trees in their patios are critical in the imaginaries around home and in the production of habitable spaces in cities, as well as to our understanding of urban natures.     

From Imperialism to Internationalism: British Idealism and Human Rights

ABSTRACT

The article provides a historical account of the younger generation of British Idealists’ (1880–1930) approach to international relations and human rights. By focusing on pre-Great War and post-Great War periods, it reveals the shift that occurred in their approbation of T. H. Green's theory of rights. It shows that the Great War put an end to perceptions of the Empire as a plausible and sustainable international order for the younger generation of British Idealists, as it did for the significant majority of liberal British intellectuals. Their work, especially in the post-Great War period, reveals an attempt at translating Green's theory of rights into an internationalist human rights theory, which they saw as being indispensable to maintain a stable international order. As an alternative to contemporary attempts to locate Green's rights theory within the cosmopolitan–communitarian divide in human rights theories, this study draws attention to the younger generation of British Idealists’ long neglected internationalist approach to human rights as a middle way position.     

Science and the Fate of the Human Soul in Tom Wolfe

Abstract

This article investigates Tom Wolfe's assessment of the age-old debate between nature and nurture, the Cartesian mind–body problem, and the tensions between science, politics, and morality that result from the human struggle to explain what the components of a human being are. I begin with Wolfe's own study of what evolution and neuroscience tell us about the “Human Beast.” Wolfe is not certain that evolution tells the whole story of how human beings came to be who and what they are in the twenty-first century. Evolution got us to the point of speech but Wolfe is persuaded that at that point, evolution ended and speech took over. Speech, according to Wolfe, made the development of reason and ingenuity and the creation of culture possible. And it is culture, the shared set of human behavior, knowledge, and beliefs, manners, and mores, and, above all for Wolfe, status, which then informs human motivation and actions. Wolfe is open to the idea that neuroscience might eventually be able to explain every detail of how and why the human brain functions as it does but he is skeptical that it will be able to explain away completely the idea that each of us is an individual, striving for honor and success within our status sphere.     

Defending the Individual: the Personal Rights Association and the Ligue des droits de l'homme, 1871–1916

This article investigates the conceptual and organisational connections between late nineteenth-century civil-liberties activism and the emerging human-rights paradigm of the twentieth century. The comparison of the two largest and most influential civil-liberties organisations to emerge in Britain and France before the First World War (the British Personal Rights Association and the French Ligue des droits de l'homme) has three objectives: to place the two groups in a wider context of civil-liberty organisations of the pre-First World War era and to identify personal connections and inspirations. Secondly, by analysing functional definitions of ‘rights’ and who these rights should apply to, the article argues that although one group conceptualised their activism on the basis of ‘civil liberties’ and the other on ‘human rights’ there were significant similarities between the approaches of the two groups. Moreover, differences stemmed from internal politics within each group rather than the dissimilar conceptual framework. Finally the article seeks to understand why the Ligue des droits de l'homme was much more successful than the British Personal Rights Association both in its ability to mobilise supporters, and in inspiring sister organisations in other European countries.     

人文地理学研究中对空间的再认识

作为人文地理学的核心概念,空间在全球化、信息化、人文主义、后现代主义、地理学社会与文化转向等语境下需要重新认识。首先对空间认知转变的背景进行阐释,在此基础上重点辨析国内外研究成果中对于"空间"的核心论述,把对空间的认知转变归结为4点:(1)从科学的空间到人性的空间;(2)从物质的空间到非物质的空间;(3)单纯的空间到复杂的空间;(4)从"外壳"的空间到空间里面的空间。最后提出对我国当前人文地理学研究的3点启示:(1)注重学科基础概念的重新认识;(2)重视微观层面的细化研究;(3)加强跨学科的整合研究。     

人文地理学野外考察的指南,方法论与方法结合研究的探索——评周尚意主编的《人文地理学野外方法》

野外考察是地理学的优良传统。人文地理学关注方法论与野外方法的关系。周尚意教授主编的《人文地理学野外方法》一书,系统、详细地介绍了野外方法及其案例,而且在方法论与野外方法结合研究上进行了积极探索。由此延伸思考可得:方法与方法论研究是辩证互动的关系,由于方法论涉及学科实践,所以野外考察需要方法论的指导。作为艺术和技术的结合,人文地理学(野外)著作应该达到"四有":有趣、有用、有力、有美。     

试论城镇人居环境中的生产环境

本文通过对人居环境概念的分析,指出生产环境是人居环境中不可分割的组成部分,认为城镇人居环境中的生产环境应是城镇中居民从事各种生产活动的直接环境和各种生产活动所营造的对居民有直接或间接影响的城镇环境。根据这一认识,作者对城镇人居环境中的生产环境所涉及的要素分内部和外部环境(包括生产性设施环境、生产性人口环境、生产性文化和制度环境、生产性污染和灾害环境、择业环境等)两个层面进行了多维度的分析,并指出城镇人居环境的持续发展必须加强对生产环境的研究。     

The oldest human remains from the Beagle Channel region,Tierra del Fuego

The biohistory of the human peopling of the Fuegian Archipelago and the processes of biocultural adaptation and microdifferentiation of the ethnohistorical ‘canoe’ (‘sea nomad’) and ‘foot’ natives are poorly known. Here we report the oldest human remains of a ‘sea nomad’ native discovered so far in the Beagle Channel region. The specimen consists of a deciduous molar from the site of Imiwaia I, dated to 5870 ± 145 years BP. The microwear pattern indicates the consumption of hard food processed by long chewing cycles. The histomorphometric analysis shows the presence of at least three episodes of stress between 8 and 10.5 months after birth, and an unusually thin neonatal line, suggesting a mechanically non‐stressing birth event. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

当代西方人文地理学研究动态——《人文地理学词典》评述

通过对约翰斯顿等人编著的《人文地理学词典》(第三版)的分析,揭示当今西方人文地理学的研究动态,指出中国人文地理学的发展差距。