Decreasing experiences of home range,outdoor spaces,activities and companions: changes across three generations in Sheffield in north England

Home range is commonly understood to be the distance from home that children are allowed to go in the outdoor environment with the term being used within various academic disciplines. Different factors influence children's home range including traffic, age, parental fears and understandings of what it means to be a good parent. Research addressing home range over different generations has identified a context of changes in the built environment, demography and technology. This paper reports results from three generations of two families in Sheffield in the north of England and confirms a reduction in four major domains: home range, variety of outdoor spaces visited, range of activities undertaken and the number of companions.     

Introduction: Biographies Between Spheres of Empire

ABSTRACT

Biographical research offers a promising approach to the study of empire, imperialism and colonialism. The careers and life stories of individuals and generations show particularly clearly the disruptions and constraints, but also the new possibilities and mobilities, that were created by colonial rule. This special issue focuses on practices and experiences of boundary crossing in imperial and colonial history. It explores how ‘ordinary’ individuals and groups navigated between the different imperial spaces and spheres into which they were categorised according to the ideologies and regulations of the well-ordered colonial world. Africa offers particularly interesting cases for studying these issues because, first, it was a field of particularly rigid colonial distinctions and, second, different colonial empires overlapped and competed there with particular intensity. This introduction outlines briefly the relevance of biographical research for new approaches in imperial, colonial and African history, and highlights the major themes of the five articles comprising this special issue. It is argued that these new biographical approaches tell us much not only about life in Africa on the eve of and under colonial rule, but also more generally about both the power and the permeability of imperial domination and of colonial categories.     

A gender analysis of everyday mobility in urban and rural territories: from challenges to sustainability

Gender differences in mobility patterns between women and men have long been acknowledged. This study analyses how these differences are reproduced in different urban and rural contexts. Using mobility data from a large travel survey taken in 2006 in Spain, we examine the differences between gender mobility through age, modal split and trip purposes. Special attention is paid to how territory shapes mobility and how these territorial settings differently affect gendered mobilities. The use of this data source allows the comparison of all trips made by the total population, including all means of transport. By taking a global view on mobility, the uneven relationships that men and women have with different means of transport become more visible. After disaggregating data by age and territorial settings, results show that women are using sustainable transport modes more often than men, and travelling for more diverse reasons. Gender is thus a fundamental variable in understanding modal split and, by extension, transport sustainability, in terms of energy consumption and the emission of greenhouse gases. From this point of view, we consider women's mobility knowledge and practices – typically related to the most sustainable means of transport – as factors with rising value that could effectively guide public policy in its way to promote more sustainable mobility patterns.     

Eyes on the alley: children’s appropriation of alley space in Riverdale,Toronto

ABSTRACT

Recent research suggests that numerous positive physical, cognitive, and social benefits can be derived from independent mobility and play agency amongst children, necessitating an understanding of how physical and social environments facilitate this development. This study involved parents, and children aged 9–13 from twelve households in the neighbourhood of Riverdale in Toronto. Using a mapping exercise to instigate discussion, participants were asked to describe where, how, and with whom play occurs in their neighbourhood. A reoccurring theme emerged amongst households that border a back alley where parents perceived this space as safer allowing them to grant greater independent mobility to their children and use this space as an intermediary tool to prepare their children for greater independence. For children, this space serves as one of creative appropriation, granting them access to more space and friends to play with. Situated within the context of age-friendly cities, this research identifies several socio-spatial qualities found in alleys that have the potential to contribute to the discussion of more inclusive city-building practice.     

Rethinking music geography through the mainstream: a geographical analysis of Frank Sinatra,music and travel

This paper brings a new perspective to music geography by focusing on how a particular mainstream musician helped to construct, subvert, and circulate meanings associated with travel. It asserts that Frank Sinatra, via his music and actions, engaged with travel in ways that frequently ran counter to how it has commonly been enacted in American music and popular culture. Particular attention is paid to the singer’s travel-themed album, Come Fly With Me. By the time of its release in 1958, Sinatra, via a public persona that encompassed performer, ‘playboy’ and businessman, was a central figure in promoting an alignment of leisured mobility with postwar economic success. The paper interrogates how Sinatra’s celebrity allowed him to embody travel in certain real and imagined ways. It also examines what the resulting representations revealed about performances of gender, ethnicity, and status, and the expected modes of behavior that were associated with them, in America’s postwar consumer-driven society.     

Inside Checkpoint 300: Checkpoint Regimes as Spatial Political Technologies in the Occupied Palestinian Territories

As a part of the architecture of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories, the Israeli government introduced in 2005 a series of so‐called terminal checkpoints as “neutral border crossings”, to minimise the impact of these barriers on Palestinian lives through a different design and the use of several machines, such as turnstiles and metal detectors. In this article, we analyse terminal Checkpoint 300 in Bethlehem, framing it as a spatial political technology aimed at controlling the movement of Palestinians. More specifically, we investigate the interactions between Palestinian commuters, Israeli soldiers/security guards and the machines operating inside Checkpoint 300. We conclude by suggesting that Checkpoint 300 is a porous barrier whose regime is produced, reproduced but also challenged by such interactions, and that, despite the new “neutral design”, Checkpoint 300 is a place still filled with tension and violence, often exercised by the machines and their “decisions”.     

The Movement and Exchange of Dogs in the Prehistoric Caribbean: An Isotopic Investigation

This study explores the feasibility of using strontium isotope (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) analyses of enamel from domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) to investigate networks of exchange in the prehistoric Circum‐Caribbean. Dog teeth were obtained from burial and domestic contexts from two prehistoric sites (Anse à la Gourde and Morel) on Grande‐Terre, Guadeloupe (Lesser Antilles). Strontium isotope results were compared with local biosphere ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr data at the scale of the site, island and archipelago. The isotope results indicate both local and nonlocal origins with three dogs (30%) identified as nonlocal (one from Anse à la Gourde and two from Morel). The variance in ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios of the nonlocal dog teeth is consistent with diverse multiple origins external to the island of Grande‐Terre but consistent with origins from other islands of the Lesser Antilles. The diverse origins of the nonlocal dog samples indicate that the prehistoric circulation of dogs occurred at multiple scales from regional to long distance. Significantly, the ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios of some of the dog teeth are comparable with values of nonlocal humans at Anse à la Gourde determined in previous studies. It is possible that these comparable ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios result from similar natal origins, for example if individuals were migrating to Guadeloupe with dogs. The results of this study contribute to an ongoing regional investigation of the economic, social and political roles of animals and animal remains and the multiscalar networks of prehistoric mobility and exchange in the Circum‐Caribbean region. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

流动性视角下中国流行菜系的空间扩散格局及其文化地理逻辑

流动性的增强不但意味着人口、信息、资金流动强度增加,也意味着流动范围的扩大。在此背景下,以稳定的人口构成为基础的传统地域饮食文化区的边界也开始发生变化。同时,流动性也使多元地方饮食文化在空间扩散的基础上展开了互动与交融。本研究将除港澳台地区以外的中国全域作为研究区域,基于海量餐饮服务设施POI数据,运用核密度分析方法分析中国目前的流行菜系空间扩散格局并描述其特征,并从流动性视角阐释其形成与扩散的文化地理逻辑。研究发现,中国现流行的菜系主要包括川菜、湘菜、粤菜、东北菜、徽菜、云贵菜、西北菜、鲁菜;中国流行菜系的空间扩散格局具有差异明显、多中心发展的特点。其中,川菜、湘菜、粤菜数量多分布广;鲁菜、徽菜分布集中,扩散较少;东北菜、云贵菜、西北菜数量较少但分布范围广。这种流行菜系空间扩散格局背后的文化地理逻辑与流动性密不可分,人口、资金等的流动促使地方饮食文化在空间内扩散,同时也带来了地方饮食文化间的交融互构。     

Isotopic Evidence for Marine Consumption and Mobility in the Atacama Desert (Quillagua,Northern Chile)

Archaeological research in the Atacama Desert has recovered evidence of considerable cultural variability. This variability seems to have increased during the Late Intermediate Period (AD 950–1400). The oasis of Quillagua, located at the margins of the Loa River in northern Chile, between the Andes and the coast (70 km from the Pacific Ocean), has shown important evidence regarding this cultural diversity. The variety in the archaeological evidence found at Quillagua has been interpreted as the result of two different cultural influences at the oasis: the Pica‐Tarapacá who occupied the coastal and inland regions to the north of Quillagua and the Atacama who occupied the oasis and fertile areas southeast of Quillagua. Here, we present the results of stable carbon, nitrogen and oxygen isotope analyses of 23 individuals recovered from the Cementerio Oriente in Quillagua, in order to test whether the observed cultural variability is also reflected in diet and mobility patterns. Results from carbon and nitrogen isotope measurements indicate the importance of marine protein, as well as a contribution of maize in the diet of some individuals. Four individuals show low δ¹⁸O values, suggesting a possible highland or non‐local origin, whereas values for the remaining individuals are consistent with lowland populations. Together, the results support the idea that the Quillagua oasis represented an important site of interaction between the Tarapacá and Atacama cultures, with close contacts with the coast but also with the presence of individuals from the highlands. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Human Response to Climate Change during the Umm an‐Nar/Wadi Suq Transition in the United Arab Emirates

Stable oxygen isotope ratios in archaeological human dental enamel represent an under‐utilised tool in the examination of changing climatic patterns in the ancient world. In the Oman Peninsula at the end of the third millennium bc , rapid aridification was accompanied by a breakdown in interregional trade relations; however, the human response to these changes is poorly understood. At the Bronze Age necropolis at Shimal in the United Arab Emirates, dental enamel from individuals interred in both Umm an‐Nar (ca 2700–2000 bc ) and Wadi Suq (ca 2000–1300 bc ) tombs underwent oxygen, strontium and carbon isotope analyses to examine how local inhabitants of southeastern Arabia responded to both environmental and socioeconomic change. While individuals from Shimal exhibit a clear shift in mean δ¹⁸O_c(VPDB) values from the Umm an‐Nar (−3.5 ± 0.6‰, 1σ) to the Wadi Suq (−2.4 ± 0.9‰, 1σ), corresponding ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr and δ¹³C_ap signatures display homogeneity indicative of continuity in Bronze Age lifeways. Together, these data highlight the ability of local communities to successfully adapt to their changing environs (in lieu of societal collapse or a shift to a more mobile lifestyle) in an effort to maintain their way of life. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.