Logistical mobility reduces subsistence risk in hunting economies

Increasing carnivory is frequently cited as one of the key trajectories in the course of hominin evolution, yet the ethnographic record demonstrates that hunting is a high-variance, risky strategy necessitating a fundamental re-organisation of the foraging pattern. Hunter-gatherers rely on intra-band sharing of hunted resources as well as inter-band insurance mechanisms to mitigate against the risk of resource failure. It is suggested that logistical mobility functions to increase encounter rates with both prey and representatives of neighbouring groups, and is thus a fundamental part of the hunting adaptation. Implementation of an ideal gas model of encounter rate demonstrates that, when logistical mobility is regarded as a basic group fission pattern, it increases encounter rates for all groups relying on greater than 34% hunting. This equates to a shift in the optimal hunting percentage, as defined by encounter rates, from 24% under residential mobility to 35% under a logistical mobility strategy. These results are discussed in relation to fission–fusion social systems in primates and social carnivores, with a view to highlighting the specific aspects in which these differ from human foraging strategies.     

Gender and mobility: new approaches for informing sustainability

Feminists have long known that gender and mobility are inseparable, influencing each other in profound and often subtle ways. Tackling complex societal problems, such as sustainability, will require improved understandings of the relationships between gender and mobility. In this essay I propose new approaches to the study of mobility and gender that will provide the knowledge base needed to inform policies on sustainable mobility. Early in the essay I survey the large literature on gender and mobility, teasing out what I see as two disparate strands of thinking that have remained badly disconnected from each other. One of these strands has informed understandings of how mobility shapes gender, while the other has examined how gender shapes mobility. Work on how mobility shapes gender has emphasized gender, to the neglect of mobility, whereas research on how gender shapes mobility has dealt with mobility in great detail and paid much less attention to gender. From this overview of the literature, I identify knowledge gaps that must be bridged if feminist research on gender and mobility is to assist in charting paths to sustainable mobility. I argue for the need to shift the research agenda so that future research will synthesize these two strands of thinking along three lines: (1) across ways of thinking about gender and mobility, (2) across quantitative and qualitative approaches, and (3) across places. In the final part of the essay I suggest how to achieve this synthesis by making geographic, social and cultural context central to our analyses.     

The drivers to Erasmus work placement mobility for UK students

This paper examines the drivers to UK student work placement mobility through the Erasmus programme (European Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students). This research was stimulated by the overrepresentation of UK students in the Erasmus work placement programme since its introduction in 2007. Using a multi-methods approach, based on student interviews and report analysis, five main drivers to Erasmus work placement mobility are revealed: employability, the economic downturn and subsequent failure to secure a placement in the UK, language, finance and personal factors. This paper discusses these five factors to reveal the complex and interlinked influences that encourage UK students to undertake an Erasmus work placement. Overall, employability is identified as the main driver to the mobility of Erasmus work placement students. It is argued that the neoliberal agenda in UK higher education, to streamline away from education for the public good, towards education for employability purposes, is a key factor in explaining the popularity of Erasmus work placements in the UK. Importantly, this paper argues that the drivers to work placement mobility are different to the motivations to study abroad. It is, therefore, essential that they are dealt with separately in order to explore the differences and similarities between sub-types of student mobility.     

Teaching English in South Korea: mobility norms and higher education outcomes in youth migration

In many Western contexts, travel has a long historical association with youth, young adults and coming of age, an association that often connects temporary mobility with the lives of the educated middle classes and elite. Indeed, from the colonial adventure and the ‘grand tour’, to contemporary ideas of the ‘gap year’ or ‘overseas experience’, the mobility of Western youth and young adults is often considered voluntary and based on a desire to explore places and develop positive personal attributes, marking a stark contrast to depictions of migration from the developing world as directly or indirectly forced and driven primarily by economic considerations. This paper questions this depiction of developed world mobility in the context of the changing economic conditions that face young graduates in many Western countries. Drawing on survey and interview data I focus on the profiles and biographies of young adults from English-speaking countries working as foreign language instructors in South Korea. Although the personal narrative of travel and exploration amongst these individuals remains significant, findings from this research also suggest that many of these young graduates are also driven by economic circumstances: unemployment or underemployment and high levels of debt usually associated with tertiary studies. This tension between the opportunities available to young people and the constraints imposed by their own circumstances raises important questions about the multiple layers of social and economic differentiation operating through higher education and international mobility in the lives of young people.     

“Where Can a Gypsy Stop?” Rethinking Mobility in Scotland

Abstract: This article examines mobile practices of Scottish Gypsy/Travellers and analyses how their mobility affects their socio‐spatial access to participation within Scottish society. It explores how different representations of mobility set up boundaries and limitations on travel, unravels everyday practices of mobility by Gypsy Travellers and discusses their embeddedness within Scottish society and culture. The discussion draws on empirical research results to assess attempts to accommodate mobile practices of Travellers within existing structures of political and economic organisation. It exposes dominant “punctual” understanding of movement, which lacks information about what happens during the move and overlooks important elements of ambulant lifestyles. Findings from this study suggest that formalised definitions of travel privilege specific forms of mobility to the neglect of the others and serve to perpetuate the marginalised identities of itinerant people. The paper concludes with theoretically informed observations about the new ways of re‐connecting policies tackling disadvantage with mobility.     

Political economy,demography and development in Australia's Northern Territory

The Canadian ‘staples thesis’ literature has documented both the risks (in the tradition of Harold Innis) and the opportunities (in the tradition of W. A. Macintosh) inherent in economies that are dependent on the export of minimally processed natural resources. The key risk is that of retarded long‐term growth as a result of a lack of diversification and over‐dependence on foreign capital and markets. This article argues that the demographic consequences of staples approaches to development also make it difficult to achieve diversification. It profiles Australia's Northern Territory as an example of a mining‐dependent (fiscal) economy that demonstrates a particular demographic profile consistent with what might be expected of a resource frontier. The article argues, however, that restrictive demographic characteristics persist (high sex ratios, high population mobility, disadvantaged position of indigenous people and remote dwellers) even though mining has become an insignificant direct employer (less than one percent of the workforce) and the services sector drives the labour market. This persistence can be linked to the Territory and federal government expectations of economic development patterns in the region and the frontier mythology created around the Northern Territory. Addressing the demographic imbalance is a critical step towards realizing ambitions for economic diversification.     

集市:民俗学理解日常生活的新视野

集市是广泛存在于世界各地区各民族的商品交易形式,也是地方社会生活在空间上的浓缩。以流动为特征的集市为地方性知识的生成与表述、民俗关系的搭建与互动提供了场域,是区域性生活实践、文化变迁和社区整合的动力源泉。民俗学对集市中民俗事象、时空特征和实践活动的关注,可在超越村落边界的基础上,透视人群交往、文化交流和物品交换之间的关系,从而拓展民俗学的研究视野,深化对日常生活的理解,提升民俗学理论方法的活力;同时,民俗学的学术关怀可以进一步充实集市研究的生活感、文化性与应用性,丰富有关集市当代转型和乡村社会建设等议题的讨论,体现学科服务社会发展的现实关切。     

Internal migration in the countries of Asia: levels,ages and spatial impacts

ABSTRACT

Internal migration, the movement of people between localities and regions within a country, has resulted in a significant redistribution of national populations. Past cross-national studies have been impeded by a lack of data and comparable metrics upon which to base comparisons. This paper examines internal migration in 30 Asian countries utilising a global dataset and a novel suite of measures devised in the IMAGE project. Three aspects of internal migration are explored: overall intensity, age patterns, and spatial impacts. Comparisons reveal that internal migration intensities, while on average lower than in other regions, are highly variable across countries. Migration peaks at earlier ages and is concentrated into a narrower age band than in other parts of the world. Analysis of spatial impacts highlights the contribution of migration to urbanisation, but a comparison of current trends against lifetime migration data also reveals the impact of historical events and government policies on national migration systems. Wide variation in key dimensions of migration among Asian countries reflects a diversity in national circumstances. The way forward lies in further in-depth country studies building on the common analytic framework articulated in this study.     

Clovis Lithic Technology: The Devil Is in the Details

Clovis is the best known early development in North America buts its lithic technology is poorly documented and often from animal kill sites. This evidence has been used to picture Clovis peoples as mobile, colonizing, big-game hunters and explanations of lithic technological practices have been framed largely in materialist terms. Increasing documentation suggests views about how the complex Clovis biface and blade production strategies relate to subsistence, land use, and specific kinds of mobility patterns are questionable and often difficult to test with archaeological data. We need to seriously consider the role of Clovis people's worldview in structuring their thought and technical actions.     

Compulsory Schooling Legislation: An Economic Analysis of Law and Social Change in the Nineteenth Century

Samples drawn from marriage registers in Birmingham and rural Norfolk, England, which report the occupational status for both the groom and his father, were matched with the 1851 and 1881 English censuses, which also contain occupational information. After performing several checks for selection bias, the author concludes: First, although most occupational mobility took place within 10 years of marriage—when the groom was roughly between the ages of 25 and 35—some continued after he turned 50. Second, approximately 35 percent of the men in each area eventually had an occupational status different from their fathers, and about 30 percent changed occupational status over their careers, belying the stereotype of impenetrable walls between classes in Victorian England. Third, upward occupational mobility seemed to slow in both regions as the period under consideration progressed. Fourth, although occupational mobility rates overall were comparable in these urban and rural areas, it was much easier for an individual to rise from an unskilled to a skilled status in Birmingham than it was in Norfolk. Fifth, and perhaps most surprising, literacy had a greater effect on social mobility in rural Norfolk than in urban Birmingham.