From golden hills to sycamore trees: pastoral homelands and ethnic identity in Irish immigrant fiction, 1860–75

The prose fiction that remembers the trials of starvation and eviction of the Great Famine (1845–50) often juxtaposes representations of blasted, infertile land with images of a green, idyllic Erin. Through a discussion of Mary Anne Sadlier's Bessy Conway (1861), Elizabeth Hely Walshe's Golden Hills: A Tale of the Irish Famine (1865) and John McElgun's Annie Reilly (1873), this article reveals that immigrant writers of the Famine generation often negotiate depictions of Famine-stricken wasteland with evocations of a pastoral homeland. In the case of the two Catholic novels, Bessy Conway and Annie Reilly, the pastoral becomes a point of ethnic identification through which the immigrants can recollect and reconstruct a sense of Irishness in exile. By contrast, Golden Hills, which focuses on the Anglo-Irish ascendancy, does not lament the mass exodus of afflicted Irish: the novel rather envisions emigration as a way to regenerate Ireland as locus amoenus.     

Children's perceptions of and attitudes towards,transport modes: why a vehicle for change is long overdue

Overreliance on car transportation impacts negatively on children's health, safety and well-being. This paper presents research that investigated children's perceptions of, and attitudes towards, transport modes. Primary children completed a pictorial questionnaire (n?=?486), 119 participated in focus groups (n?=?27). The findings suggest that children learn about transport modes from different interacting sources, both through experiential and vicarious mediums. The author concludes that the social emphasis on cars can have an intellectual impact that is detectable in the perceptions and attitudes of many children. It is argued that current policy for reducing car use in the UK has a narrow focus and does not address the role of social and cultural factors in car usage and dependency. Suggestions for new initiatives aimed at the family and the media are described.     

Private Conflict and Policy Passage: Interest-Group Conflict and State Medical Malpractice Reform

James Madison argued in Federalist 10 that "rival political factions" work against the public good. In contrast to Madison's pessimistic account, I suggest that factional conflict can lead to more representative public policy, and thus further the will of the people. I theorize that elected officials often seek a safe political position—one that corresponds to the preferences of the public at large—during periods of high conflict. I assess this theory in one, salient policy area, medical malpractice. I measure conflict with contributions for state candidates given by (i) the health and insurance industries, which generally support malpractice laws, and (ii) lawyers, who frequently oppose the laws. I find that group conflict matters to policy outcomes. I also find evidence that, under conditions of elevated conflict, adopted policies are more likely to move toward the general ideological preferences of the public at large. These results suggest that group conflict affects both the quantity and character of policy in the American states.     

内蒙古和林格尔县新店子墓地发掘简报

1999年,在内蒙古和林格尔县新店子墓地发掘墓葬56座,出土大批铜、石、陶、骨、金器等。墓葬形制可分竖穴土坑、洞室、偏洞室三种,绝大多数存在殉牲现象。墓葬年代为春秋晚期至战国早期。此墓地与岱海、鄂尔多斯地区的同时期考古遗存既有共性,又有一定区别。墓地居民可能从事一种较为发达的游牧经济。     

对搞好农牧区“广播电视村村通”工程的几点认识

“广播电视村村通”工程是农牧区广播电视事业发展的载体,是解决边远山区农牧民群众看不到电视、听不到广播难题的“民心工程”。要因地制宜,探索建立农牧区广播电视公共服务体系,搞好“广播电视村村通”工程建设。     

Undergraduate student perceptions of assessment and feedback practice: fostering agency and dialogue

ABSTRACT

Assessment and feedback practices sit at the heart of education and the student experience. This paper reports on undergraduate perceptions of assessment and feedback in the Department of Geography at King’s College London, UK. Twenty-eight first and second-year students across six focus groups provided comments on their understanding of feedback, their feedback experiences, and what they felt could be improved. It was clear that students desired feedback that would help them improve summative performance, but were unsure of how best to use it and consequently had high expectations that led to dissatisfaction. Particular concern was expressed about marking and feedback consistency, and the inherent variation in practice they experienced. Many comments indicated a lack of student agency, which may reflect the power relations that students find themselves in within their community of practice. Finding ways of fostering agency and improving dialogue over perceptions and expectations are suggested to be important steps in improving assessment and feedback practice, and student satisfaction.     

论“雪域牧耕文明板块”在中国疆域底定过程中的地位

青藏高原特有的高山地带适宜游牧、河谷地带有利农耕的自然条件,带来了该地域定居农业与游牧社会二元分割的态势。因二者势均力敌、彼此难以统合对方,造成该地域在前近代除了吐蕃王朝暂短统一外,大部分时间处于分裂割据状态。此既是藏传佛教趁势崛起之缘由,亦为元、清两朝政治力量始终对该地域起着决定性影响的深层机理。同时,由于藏传佛教通过宗教的力量将雪域高原的文明一体性延续下来,妙用文化的力量参与并深刻地影响着古代中国疆域构建历程,使得该地域在中国疆域底定过程中起着不可替代的作用。     

Subsistence variations and landscape use among maritime hunter-gatherers. A zooarchaeological analysis from the Beagle Channel (Tierra del Fuego,Argentina)

Changes in the exploitation of resources among prehistoric hunter-gatherer-fishers of the Beagle Channel (Southern South America) are examined in this paper. Archaeological investigations show the prevalence of maritime hunter-gatherer organization throughout the occupation of the region (ca. 6400 BP – 19th century). Notwithstanding, variations in the exploitation of different kind of animal resources have been detected, and a concomitant reorientation in the landscape use is then inferred. Zooarchaeological evidence from five shellmiddens is analyzed here: evenness measures and relative abundance prey types are used to evaluate such adjustments. Results indicate the major utilization of coastal and terrestrial ecozones and the predominance in the exploitation of mammals (pinnipeds and guanacos) in ancient occupations. While, during the Late Holocene an expansion in ranges of maritime mobility for subsistence is detected, which was associated with an increase in the representation of birds and fish in the zooarchaeological record.     

Land Tenures as Policy Instruments: Transitions on Cape York Peninsula

Over the last four decades, Australia's most remote marginal lands have provided an expansive space towards realisation of emergent national goals, involving recognition of Aboriginal land rights together with protection of ‘wilderness’ and semi‐natural ecosystems. This has been achieved by the revival of land tenures as instruments for the delivery of public policy, requiring innovative federal and state legislation, often driven by judicial determinations. More so than any other bioregion, Cape York Peninsula has experienced radical shifts in landownership, land titles, and property rights, reflecting its pivotal role as an arena in which emerging national goals are contested. The most immediately visible evidence of these changes is depicted in the tenure maps for 1970, 1990, and 2010. However, these maps provide an incomplete account of tenure changes, including new titles such as non‐transferable communal freehold and common‐law recognition of traditional native title, requiring belated responses by state and federal governments. The three benchmark maps provide a starting point for an examination of the currently resurrected role of land titles and land rights as policy instruments. The time‐specific attributes of each tenure category are discussed and linked to the policies underpinning each tenure and to the communities, political constituencies, resources, enterprises, and national values engaged with each tenure. Land titles and land rights are pivotal in political contests about regional futures, with the peninsula acting as a crucible in shaping wider national directions.     

Narrative claims on regions: prospecting for spatial identities among social movements in Finland

Regions have been regarded as processes, artefacts and discourses, and recently as ‘brands’ that various stakeholders use in marketing. Discourses on institutional regions are typically promoted by media, governmental bodies and planning organizations that draw on reputed collective regional identities—the expressions of past and current social discourses and cultural practices. However, such institutional regional discourses are often incongruous to spatial imaginaries of everyday life. This article scrutinizes the meanings of spatial attachment to citizens and explores to what extent regional identities are meaningful in everyday life. To avoid biased assumptions, focus-group interviews were carried out within four Finnish provinces among the members of four social movements. The results show that provincial spaces are not actively thought-and-practiced. Spatial identities are rather structured around personal experiences that typically accumulate in several locales, since personal histories are increasingly characterized by mobility. This article also recognizes that the everyday meanings of a socially constructed region are often generationally read and combine different historical narratives.