Literacy and Writing: Ideology in Practice

Four recent books deal with the origins of early writing systems, the implications of texts and artifacts on the development of cognitive process and social practice, and the importance of textual artifacts for cultural cohesion and attendant issues of power and identity. This review draws out the interrelation of writing and speech, the conceptualization of literacy as singular and autonomous or multiple and ideological, and where and how to place forms of visual communication within the paradigm of “literacy.”     

Water,Wind, Wood,and Trees: Interactions,Spatial Variations,Temporal Dynamics,and their Potential Role in River Rehabilitation

Recent Australian research has quantified the role of large wood (wood of any origin and length with a diameter greater than 0.1 m) in dissipating stream energy, forming pool habitats by local bed scour, protecting river banks from erosion, and damming rivers with long rafts causing avulsions. Large wood in Australian streams is sourced by a range of processes from the nearby riparian zone which has usually been degraded by post‐European settlement vegetation clearing. Large wood loadings within the bankfull channel are dependent not only on the type and quality of the riparian plant community but also on bankfull specific stream power, channel width, and the processes of large wood delivery to the stream. While bank erosion and floodplain stripping by catastrophic floods are obvious and important delivery mechanisms, treefall and trunk and branch breakage by strong winds during tropical cyclones and severe storms are also significant in the tropics. Furthermore, wood decay and downstream transport produce temporally dynamic large wood distributions. The longevity of natural large wood structures in rivers, such as rafts, debris dams, and log steps, requires determination. River rehabilitation programs need to not only include the reintroduction of large wood, but also carefully plan the spatial distribution of that wood, the most appropriate type and range of large wood structures, and, most importantly, the revegetation of the riparian zone to ensure a natural long‐term source of large wood. Exotic species management is an essential part of river rehabilitation.     

MEMORY,MEMORIALS, AND COMMEMORATION1

According to a popular view, the past is present here and now. This is presentism combined with endurantism: the past continuously persists through time to the present. By contrast, I argue that memories, memorials, and histories are of entities discontinuous with present experiences, and that the continuity between past and present in them is a construct. Memories, memorials, and histories are semantic means for dealing with the past. My presupposition that past and present are different is supported by grammar: as verbal tenses show, the past is not present here and now, for otherwise it would not be past. A failure to note this difference is a lack of chronesthesia, a sense of time specific to human beings. I argue that presentism fails to account for the temporal structures of memory and the changes in perspective as we switch from the present to a past situation. My account is perdurantist in the sense that it allows for temporal parts of things such as memorials or tombstones, as well as events such as wars or commemorations. But my main goal is to outline a semantic approach to the past: the tie between past and present actions and events is the semantic ground–consequence relation: a past event is the antecedent grounding a present situation, explaining why it is the case. In addition, I show how we refer to the past by means of two rhetorical figures of speech: synecdoche, using the (emblematic‐) part‐whole relation for relating the past to the present by transposing its sense; and anaphor, which has a deictic function—it points back toward the past. In references to the past, the deictic field is a scene visualized by the speaker and addressees: the deictic field is transposed from a perceptual to an imaginary space.     

Critical perspectives on CSR and development: what we know, what we don't know, and what we need to know

The May 2005 issue of International Affairs addressed the theme of critical perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the developing world. The aim of this article is to take the debate a step further. Five researchers and practitioners on corporate social responsibility and development in various regions in the developing world—Central America, Pakistan, China, Vietnam, Argentina and India—using knowledge gained by their empirical research, argue that the management-oriented perspective on CSR and development is one-sided. While recognizing that critical approaches to the question have emerged, there is still a need to know which issues should form part of a critical research agenda on CSR and development.
In this article the authors seek to fill this gap in order to facilitate a more in-depth investigation of what CSR initiatives can or cannot achieve in relation to improving conditions of workers and communities in the global South. They suggest that a critical research agenda on CSR and development should encompass four areas: a) the relationship between business and poverty reduction; b) the impact of CSR initiatives; c) governance dimensions of CSR; and d) power and participation in CSR. Such an alternative critical approach focuses on society's most vulnerable groups and adopts a 'people-centred' perspective as a counterbalance to the dominant 'business case' perspective. The authors conclude that this has significant implications for CSR practice.     

Seeing Farmers' Markets: Theoretical and Media Perspectives on New Sites of Exchange in New Zealand

In this paper we explore the extent to which a reciprocal relationship exists between contemporary theorisation about farmers' markets in geography and the rapidly expanding public discourse surrounding these sites of exchange in New Zealand. Activities branded as farmers' markets are seen widely as local phenomena of systemic significance for the understanding of evolving geographies of production, consumption and exchange. As something ‘new’ on the landscape, farmers' markets also attract attention in the media. An electronic database of significant print media contributions over the period 1995 to 2007 provides the empirical basis for an assessment of the extent to which theorisation and the public discourse address common themes. Our analysis indicates that, while the economic and social constructions in both the research literature and the media database share common themes, strong contrasts in ways of ‘seeing’ farmers' markets are apparent. We note the predilection in the print media to present the nature and purpose of farmers' markets through the personal experiences and ‘stories’ of participants. There is a tendency to focus on the appeal of markets to the consumers who form the readership base. The theorised alterity of the farmers' market, either in terms of production methods or motivations for consumption, is not reflected strongly in media reports, and this raises questions about ‘over-theorisation’ in the academic literature. Our aim is to promote reflection in both the editorial offices of the media and in the academy by documenting the nature of these contrasting views.