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.     

南京江宁陶吴春秋时期大型土墩墓发掘简报

2008年,南京市博物馆在南京市江宁区横溪街道陶吴社区清理了一座春秋中晚期的大型土墩墓。墩内发现2座小型土墩,发掘了3座墓葬,还发现有沟槽、柱坑、祭台、封门和类似门槛的遗迹及6座器物坑,出土了大量随葬器物。此次发掘的土墩墓规模巨大、遗迹和遗物丰富,推测墓主应是具有较高地位的贵族。     

初中数学活动课操作策略初探

数学活动课可安排学生进行探索性的活动,通过一些具体的操作,亲自实践,然后由学生对问题进行思考,得出数学结论,培养学生解决问题的能力和探索问题的精神。学习的过程,不仅是一个学生主动参与的过程,更是一个学生创造的过程。学生在这个探索空间里,不仅是一个发现者、探索者,更是一个创造者。     

浅谈新课程对农村中学外语教学所形成的挑战与思考

农村中学外语教学在新课程中将面临一系列新的挑战,如何认识与应对这些挑战,走出应试教学的阴影,适应课改新形势的发展需要,全面推行素质教育,大面积提高农村中学英语教学质量,有若干问题需要思考与解决。     

The question of national identity and the institutionalisation of the visual arts in Grenada

ABSTRACT. This article argues for a close relationship between national identity and the institutionalisation of the visual arts in Grenada. Art, which is intrinsic to all humans, predates its institutionalisation: it is only institutionalised in societies with a strong sense of national identity. In order to explain the role of national identity in the formation of national art, the article begins by examining the period following World War II, when Grenada – still under British colonialism – was undergoing intense social and political changes. To understand these changes, the analysis of the stratification system is paramount. The article delineates three groups on the basis of the value systems developed historically: the elite, the masses and a small, growing middle class situated between these two groups. The works of three prominent Grenadian artists illustrate the argument that institutionalisation of art requires a strong sense of national identity, and through this process the artistic development of a society occurs. Furthermore, understanding this process requires a focus on the ways in which social and political groups or classes impeded the development of a national identity, preventing the institutionalisation of the arts.     

World Geography: Organizational and Teaching Strategies

Teaching students to develop an appreciation and understanding of World Geography is a difficult task. This article presents a number of approaches to design effective teaching methods and strategies to stimulate student learning and to develop spatial interconnections. A suggested framework for organization and study of geographic regions of the world is suggested in the article. Atlas exercises, written assignments, course objectives, and seminar projects are designed to improve the understanding of geographic relationships and spatial concepts in World Geography.     

Building economies from the bottom up: (mis)representations of poverty in the rural American Northwest

This paper examines interconnected processes of economic restructuring and representations of poor subjects that rely on imaginaries of race, ethnicity, class and rural space. We argue that poverty and privilege are mutually produced and so we focus on the representational practices of White leaders in persistently poor counties across the American Northwest. We draw from case study research to understand region-wide material and discursive processes that are contributing to economic distress and social marginalization. We interrogate the range of representational practices that White leaders employ to explain, deny and/or racialize poverty in their communities. We also draw attention to how poverty emerges from the intersection of political, economic and cultural processes operating across a range of scales and sites. We further analyze how representations of the poor and poverty rest on a host of imaginary landscapes about who belongs, who is an outsider and who has a right to a place and its services. We argue that these representations serve to invigorate neoliberal policies and silence a more critical debate about poverty in the USA.     

Talking class,talking race: language,class, and race in the call center industry in South Africa

Against a backdrop of declining manufacturing employment, this article uses a study of the call center industry to argue that English language proficiency is central to new service jobs in post-apartheid South Africa. Drawing on research in Durban, we in this study show that access to call center work—especially the highest paid niches—is heavily mediated by English language skills generally attainable only at the most elite high schools. In doing so, we argue that access to English-medium education can challenge racial disadvantage, but simultaneously that English can help to consolidate white privilege through the continued association of a ‘prestigious’ accent with whiteness. The study accordingly reveals the importance of language in the changing intersectionality of race and class and, in doing so, underlines the value of social and cultural perspectives in labor geography.