Hegemonic at home and subaltern abroad: Kamaiya masculinities and changing mobility in Nepal

As former bonded labourers (or slaves), the Kamaiya of far-west Nepal have a history of marginalization, poverty and limited mobility due to the constraints inherent in the Kamaiya system of bonded labour (banned in 2000). Based on ethnographic research in the post-slavery era, this article examines how mobility is becoming an important part of Kamaiya masculinities. I consider in particular an account of migration acquired over a series of interviews with a Kamaiya man named Ram. Ram’s migrant trajectory from Nepal to India and back over variable lengths of time reflect a broader literature on circular migration in India. I argue that transnationally performed migrant masculinities are alternatively subordinated and hegemonic across geographically diverse contexts. By accepting and performing subordinated, often oppressive masculine roles in a broader South Asian context, men such as Ram are producing new, locally hegemonic or at least desirable masculine roles in Kamaiya villages in Nepal.     

‘Watching like a hawk’: gendered parenting in automobilized urban spaces

The growing interest in automobility theory and feminist perspectives on daily mobility points to the importance of considering parental mobility care of children. Hanson (2010, Gender, Place & Culture 17(1), 5–23) argues that feminists have long known that gender and mobility are bound together but have not sufficiently examined their contexts. The article extends this approach in its exploration of parental mobility care practices. It illustrates how automobility constructs disciplined parental practices to immobilize and safeguard children. Conversely, it shows how parental mobility care practices use, generate and resist automobility. These practices, the article argues, are deeply embedded within contexts of gender and automobility that (re)produce social inequalities. This analysis, which emerged out of our qualitative, interpretive approach, suggests new ways of thinking about automobility and parenting in relation to one another. The research is based on in-depth interviews with parents located in four urban areas in Vancouver, British Columbia.     

Life and Death in Neolithic Southeastern Italy: The Strontium Isotopic Evidence

There is a strong relation between people's structured identities and their chemical biographies: these can reflect the way individuals choose to reside and/or move. The strontium isotope ratio (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) of skeletal remains is considered a useful proxy to assess residential mobility and social practices in past populations; however, so far, it has only occasionally been applied to prehistoric contexts in the Mediterranean. In this paper, we present ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr data of human and animal samples from several Neolithic sites in the Apulian Tavoliere (southeastern Italy), namely, Grotta Scaloria, Passo di Corvo, Masseria Candelaro and La Torretta/Poggio Imperiale. Data obtained from dental enamel reflect the local origin of the individuals and allowed us to differentiate function and meaning of the sites examined. In particular, within a generally homogeneous background of Sr signatures, the range of ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr at Scaloria Cave is greater than at the other sites, with variation likely to be related to funerary practices. We interpret this as the evidence of the ritual use of the cave, which implied the gathering of people of different origin. The relative variation of the Sr signature among individuals, either intersite or intrasite can be tentatively associated with mobility during life as well as with social practices, such as access to foods from geologically different environments. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

瑞士周末华文学校——一种全球性的社会迁移策略

本文根据对瑞士华文学校和华文夏令营的观察和对瑞士华人和台湾教师的访谈,描述了华人移民瑞士的主要情况及其多样化的网络和社会性;介绍了传授华文的组织机构概况和大陆与台湾在支持华文教育举措上的异同;分析探讨了在不同背景下认同类型的变化;意图反映受访者对＂文化＂和＂语言＂这两个概念的不同理解和阐释。主要观点是,保持这种被认定为统一的＂华人＂认同,是一种全球性的社会迁移策略,有助于他们更好地融入瑞士或者中国。     

The Challenge of Change: Australian Cities and Urban Planning in the New Millennium

This paper reviews recent research on the changing spatial structure of Australia's major cities from the early 1990s, concentrating on (a) the location of employment and journey to work patterns, (b) the changing nature of housing, and (c) patterns of residential differentiation and disadvantage. The paper argues that the 1990s was a watershed decade during which some taken‐for‐granted aspects of Australian urban character experienced significant change. It then examines the latest generation of strategic planning documents for these major metropolitan areas, all published between 2002 and 2005, and argues that there is a mismatch between the strategies’ consensus view of desirable future urban structure, based on containment, consolidation and centres, and the complex realities of the evolving urban structures. In particular, the current metropolitan strategies do not come to terms with the dispersed, suburbanised nature of much economic activity and employment and the environmental and social issues that flow from that, and they are unconvincing in their approaches to the emerging issues of housing affordability and new, finer‐grained patterns of suburban inequality and disadvantage. Overall, the paper contends that current metropolitan planning strategies suggest an inflexible, over‐neat vision for the future that is at odds with the picture of increasing geographical complexity that emerges from recent research on the changing internal structure of our major cities.     

城市居民健康生活方式研究的时空行为视角

在宜居城市和健康城市的建设背景下,健康生活方式成为政府和公众共同追求的重要目标。已有的环境-行为-健康关系的研究主要从静态时空间的视角出发,探讨邻里环境要素与居民健康水平的相关关系,并分析健康相关行为或活动特征的中介作用。本文立足于个体导向和强调制约与企划的时间地理学、基于活动-移动模式的活动分析法、以及移动性转向下情境单元的选择问题,以个体整日活动-移动模式作为生活方式的外在行为体现,从时间、空间、个体行为和群体行为的角度,构建了基于移动性的城市环境暴露-日常活动移动模式-个体健康效应三者关系的综合分析框架,以期促进城市环境与社会的可持续发展。     

The Making(s) of an Alternative Urban Policy: What Happens When Free Fares Come to Town?

While many urban policies and practices claim to offer an “alternative” to the “mainstream” of urban entrepreneurialism, they remain under-theorised and prone to alignment with entrepreneurial agendas. In this paper I examine fare-free public transport (FFPT) as a salient example of an alternative urban policy. Looking at Aubagne (France) and Tallinn (Estonia), I explore what happens when an alternative policy “comes to town”. I detect how FFPT enters local urban regimes, and study the (non-)participation of public transport passengers and workers in the decision-making process about whether and how to abolish public transport fares. My analysis reveals that albeit alternative policies such as FFPT seem to oppose entrepreneurialism, they may hinge on urban regimes that span across institutions, leave the local configurations of power unchallenged, and strenghten local elites. The adaptability of alternatives to diverse political and intellectual positions explains their resilience. Consequently, their radical character cannot be taken for granted and remains an object of political struggle.     

Monks on the move? An assessment of mobility at the medieval Nubian monastery of Ghazali,Sudan (ca. 680–1,275 CE)

The location of Ghazali monastery away from the Nile valley within the relatively isolated environs of the Bayuda desert presents a landscape suggestive of mobility toward the monastery by those who chose to reside there as monks. To assess this potentiality, a sample of 37 individuals from the monastic cemetery (Cemetery 2) were analysed for ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr and δ¹⁸O to assess residency during dental enamel formation. The data generated bring into question the nature of mobility to Ghazali monastery, particularly in regard to the potential movement of people from the Nile valley, adjacent desertic landscapes, and further afield.     

1949年以来中国城市居住区空间演变与机制研究--以河谷盆地型城市兰州为例

河谷盆地型城市是一类地貌条件特殊的城市,本文就以兰州为例,讨论中国城市,包括河谷盆地型城市居住区的分异、空间演变与机制,并对未来中国城市居住区分化的趋势和方向进行了预测。     

城市居住空间分异的理论基础与研究层次

本系统总结国外城市社会地理学自60年代以来的发展,作认为激进马克思主义流派的社会空间统一体理论应当是城市居住空间分异研究的理论基础。该理论认为城市地域内人地关系一一人类与他们生活的物质、社会环境的关系构成研究城市社会地理的基础。人(个体与群体)与周围的环境之间的双向互动(Interacting)的连续过程,就是社会空间统一体：一方面,人创造、调整城市空间,同时他们生活工作的空间又是他们存在的物质、社会基础。邻里、社区可改变、创造和保持定居的价值观、态度和行为;另一方面,价值观、态度和行为这些派生之物也不可避免地影响邻里和社区,而且连续的城市过程产生变化的城市空间,使经济、人口、社会和科技力量在不同水平上相互作用得以延续和发展。本系统介绍了社会空间统一体理论的发展沿革,然后指明城市居住空间研究的层次。