Introduction: Critical Agrarian Studies in Theory and Practice

In this introductory article we argue for renewed attention to life and labor on and of the land—or what we call the field of Critical Agrarian Studies. Empirically rich and theoretically rigorous studies of humanity's relationship to “soil” remain essential not just for historical analysis but for understanding urgent contemporary crises, including widespread food insecurity, climate change, the proliferation of environmental refugees, growing corporate power and threats to biodiversity. The article introduces an innovative and varied collection of works in Critical Agrarian Studies and also examines the intellectual and political history of this broader field.     

Struggling with child domestic work: what can a postcolonial perspective offer?

Majority World working children's voices have attained some prominence in debates over their well-being. Many have defended their right to work, challenging Minority World understandings of children's ‘best’ interests. Yet employers' voices remain sidelined, raising questions over the extent to which the discursive and material spaces of children's work have been decolonised. A postcolonial perspective on children's work challenges suggestions that Majority World adults (and societies) need western guidance on how children ought to be raised. It also creates opportunities to look beyond western discourses of economic exploitation, to the potential for more-than-economic relationships between working children and their employers.     

ENTANGLED MEMORY: TOWARD A THIRD WAVE IN MEMORY STUDIES

This essay takes up the call for a “third phase” in memory studies and makes theoretical and methodological suggestions for its further development. Starting from an understanding of memory that centers on memory's temporality, its relation to language, and its quality as a social action, the essay puts forward the concept of “entangled memory.” On a theoretical level, it brings to the fore the entangledness of acts of remembering. In a synchronic perspective, memory's entangledness is presented as twofold. Every act of remembering inscribes an individual in multiple social frames. This polyphony entails the simultaneous existence of concurrent interpretations of the past. In a diachronic perspective, memory is entangled in the dynamic relation between single acts of remembering and changing mnemonic patterns. Memory scholars therefore uncover boundless cross‐referential configurations. Wishing to enhance the dialogue between the theoretical and the empirical parts of memory studies, we propose four devices that serve as a heuristic in the study of memory's entanglement: chronology against time, conflict, generations, and self‐reflexivity. Current debates on European memory permit us to explore the possible benefits that the concept of entangled memory carries for memory studies.     

“The play is set in the theatre”: Conor McPherson and the late-modern humanism of the theatrical event

The plays of Conor McPherson emphasise a sociality of story, language, and theatre. His theatre demands both that a storyteller be heard and that storytellers acknowledge the reality of their words existing in a social space. Meaning-making in McPherson's monologues must thus be social, shared either between the monologists and the theatrical audience, or between a storyteller and the in-play audience. This essay argues that the dynamic of storytelling in McPherson's theatre epitomises a late-modern humanist pursuit. We encounter his characters on loosely defined linguistic journeys of ontological becoming, and are called upon as audience to become interlocutors, supporting and advancing this humanist process. Ultimately, McPherson's work suggests that dramatic characters and theatrical audience exist in a reciprocal relationship of soliciting and supporting a becoming from one another.     

Mother Knows Best? Intergenerational Notions of Fashion and Identity

This paper presents research into intergenerational notions of fashion and identity. It uses examples drawn from the case study interviews with mother–daughter family groups and the participatory method of draw and write with the daughters to illustrate the influences on young girls' fashion choices in the key spaces of childhood: the home, school and community. The findings reveal that young girls both identify and disidentify with fashions and identities available to them. Their mothers play a key role in allowing and restricting certain outfits in certain spaces, with particular distinction being drawn between public and private space. This paper contributes to children's geographies by focusing on intergenerational relationships between mothers and their daughters in relation to theories of identity formation. In doing so this paper highlights how both intergenerational relationships and the girls' identities are mediated through fashion, consumption, peers and the home, school and community spaces.     

Forum: Cultural Geography and Cultural Studies

This forum discusses linkages between cultural geography and allied ‘cultural’ disciplines. A symposium on this topic – held at the 2005 conference of the Institute of Australian Geographers in Armidale – was triggered by the targeted inclusion of geography in a cross‐disciplinary network funded by the Australian Research Council. Although non‐geographers in the network have articulated strong interest in and an enthusiasm for geography, their knowledge of, and everyday participation in its disciplinary travails have been limited. Given this, the papers in the forum review geography's long and dynamic consideration of the relations between place and culture, and raise a set of key issues for geographers to consider: how we might interact with other disciplinary debates about the ‘cultural’, retain distinctiveness as the home of intellectual inquiry around issues of space and place, and leverage opportunities to forge more permanent connections to geographers working not in our traditional institutional settings, but in a range of research centres, schools and disciplinary homes.     

华侨华人学的学科定位与研究对象

本文力图从国际学术界传统学科体系的分解与整合这一角度来分析建立华侨华人学的现实性 ,并从局限性、可行性、研究对象的定位及辨识标准、研究范围、挑战与机遇等五个方面进行了分析。由于其特定的研究对象和无法进行科学抽象的特征 ,从传统的学术分类来看 ,华侨华人研究不可能成为独立的学科。然而 ,学术史的演变表明 ,一些多学科或跨学科的研究领域日益独立出来 ,这为华侨华人学的建立提供了条件。作者对“华侨华人学”下了定义 ,并提出了建立作为学科分支的华侨华人学的两种可能途径。     

关于当代中国边疆研究中的几个问题

关于边疆的界定问题 ,在 2 0世纪 90年代以前 ,我们往往只提陆疆 ,在这以后有所改变 ,增加了海疆的概念。我们在观察边疆地区的时候一定要历史地看 ,中国疆域的历史发展呈现出延续性和波动性相结合的特点。边疆的重要战略地位不仅体现在边疆地区是国防的前线、改革开放的前沿 ,还体现在边疆地区的稳定与发展是我国可持续发展的重要保证     

毛泽东对中国社会主义现代化战略的思考与选择

以毛泽东为代表的中国共产党人总结了历史经验和教训,开辟了一条先谋求民族独立、创造现代化的前提条件,再集中力量进行现代化建设的正确的救国之路;改革开放以前中国虽没有全面实现现代化,但中国共产党第一代领导集体也已经制定了一个适合国情的发展战略,并在此基础上进行了艰辛的探索,奠定了中国经济、社会继续发展的坚实基础。     

Identifying activity areas in archaeological soils from a colonial Virginia house lot using phytolith analysis and soil chemistry

Environmental archaeology methods can uncover both house lot organization and economic adaptation practices when applied systematically in conjunction with traditional archaeological research. This is the first study to employ both phytolith analysis and soil chemistry to interpret activity areas on an archaeological site. The patterning in the phytolith and soil chemistry analyses from the site of Rich Neck Plantation, Williamsburg, Virginia, reveals a set of six activity areas in and around the 17th century house lot, demonstrating a degree of economic diversification generally attributed only to 18th century colonial economic and social transformations.