Fluctuations in land values in a rural municipality in southern Québec, Canada

The agro-forested region of the Haut-St-Laurent, in southwestern Québec, in Canada, has served as a laboratory for several years to a multi-disciplinary research team seeking to understand the interplay of stakeholders and processes influencing the rural space of southern Québec. Following directly in the footsteps of previous research, this study was undertaken to analyze the hitherto neglected but important aspect of fluctuations in land values with respect to geomorphology and land use, during the 1958–1997 period. A geo-referenced database was built within an object-oriented geographic information system (GIS) that includes data from the sale of parcels of land within the study area, land registry maps, land use maps, and a geomorphological map. These data were analyzed and sorted through queries addressed to the database. Finally, a statistical analysis was performed to analyze the relationship between sale price, geomorphology and indirectly land use, for the entire study period and for each of its decades. The results show that land value has increased at different times during the past, according to its geomorphological type and land use. These relationships are explained by the important transformation phases that have affected southern Québec during the second half of the twentieth century.     

LES DUNES DU QUEBEC MERIDIONAL: CONTRIBUTION A L'ETUDE DES VENTS DOMINANTS DURANT L'HOLOCÈNE

Les données disponibles sur 67 sites de dunes au Québec méridional ont permis d'esquisser l'histoire des vents dominants durant l'Holocène. En se basant sur la chrono-logie du recul du front glaciaire et sur la régression des mers postglaciaires, il apparaǐt que le régime des vents fut relativement stable entre 11000 et 7500 ans bp, bien qu'entre 9500 et 8500 ans bp la plaine au sud du Saint-Laurent ait connu un épisode pendant lequel la provenance des vents dominants était changeante. La provenance des paléovents dominants montre les měmes variations régionales que celle des vents actuels. Ainsi, indépendamment de leur ǎge, les paléovents dominants provenaient du NE dans la plaine sud du Saint-Laurent, de l'O et du NE sur le rebord des Laurentides, de l'O, du SO, du NO et du N au Lac-Saint-Jean et de l'O à l'OSO sur la Cǒte-Nord du Saint-Laurent. Les vents qui ont édifié les dunes provenaient d'une circulation d'air anticyclonique provoquée par le retrait de l'Inlandsis laurentidien. Available data on the sand dunes of southern Quebec has permitted the historic reconstitution of prevailing wind patterns during the Holocene. From age data derived from the chronology of glacial front retreat and postglacial sea recession, it appears that the wind regime was relatively stable between 11000 and 7500 years bp, although during the period between 9500 and 8500 bp, the plain located south of the St. Lawrence underwent an episode during which the direction of the dominant winds was variable. The direction of the prevailing winds during the latter period shows the same regional variations as the actual winds. Thus, regardless of their age, the prevailing winds at that time were from the NE in the southern plain of the St. Lawrence, from the W and NW in the Laurentian foothills, from the W, SW, NW and N in the Lac-Saint-Jean area, and from the W to WSW for the North Shore of the St. Lawrence. Winds which produced the dunes came from anticyclonic circulation induced by the retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet.     

Ending sexual violence in conflict: the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative and its critics

During the past year, the UK Government has become the lead advocate for a perhaps surprising foreign policy goal: ending sexual violence in conflict. The participation of government representatives from more than 120 countries in a London Summit in June 2014 was the clearest manifestation of this project. This article offers an early assessment of the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative (PSVI) and situates it within the history of global action against sexual and gender‐based violence from UN Security Council Resolution 1325 onwards, with a particular focus on three key developments. First, the PSVI has embraced the already common understanding of rape as a ‘weapon of war’, and has stressed the importance of military training and accountability. This has exposed the tensions within global policy between a focus on all forms of sexual violence (including intimate partner violence in and out of conflict situations) on the one hand, and war zone activities on the other. Second, the Initiative has placed great emphasis on ending impunity, which implicates it in ongoing debates about the role of international and local justice as an effective response to atrocity. Third, men and boys have been foregrounded as ignored victims of sexual and gender‐based violence. The PSVI has been crucial to that recognition, but faces significant challenges in operationalizing its commitment and in avoiding damage to existing programmes to end violence against women and girls. The success of the Initiative will depend on its ability to navigate these challenges in multiple arenas of global politics.     

Constructions of Australia in pro‐ and anti‐asylum seeker political discourse

ABSTRACT. Whilst there has been a proliferation of research on the role of nationalism in the exclusion of asylum seekers, less attention has been paid to how nationalism can be mobilised in accounts opposing, rather than supporting, harsh anti‐asylum seeker regimes. This paper compares the ways in which ‘Australia’ is constructed and used in parliamentary speeches on asylum seekers by both refugee advocates and those seeking harsher asylum seeker laws in Australia. This dual focus is particularly important as it highlights the flexibility of nationalist discourse, in that the same constructions of the nation may be used for both exclusive and inclusive purposes. Whilst typologies of inclusive and exclusive nationalisms, such as Smith's (1991) ethnic/civic typology, focus on the content of nationalist ideologies, we argue that the inclusivity or exclusivity of nationalism can best be determined by examining the subject positions, political solutions and social realities they make possible, and who these discourses benefit and oppress.     

Christianity and Freemasonry: The Compatibility Debate Within the Church of England

Perceptions of the Church of England as a traditional stronghold of Freemasonry persist. Periodically, allegations have erupted alleging that membership of the brotherhood and of the church are incompatible. The compatibility of Freemasonry and Christianity became an issue most recently when the new archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, expressed his own unease about the question shortly before his enthronement. This article uses primary sources from Lambeth Palace to explore in detail a previous episode during the 1950s when the compatibility question created a furore within the ranks of church and brotherhood that involved leading members of the British establishment, including His Majesty King George VI and the archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher. Addressed by Parliament and the Foreign Office, as well as the popular media, the affair, implicating the Crown and the church, seemed to threaten disestablishment. An examination is made of the difficulties that the question raised for Anglicans at all levels and the way in which the controversy was handled by leading Freemasons and churchmen. The article goes on to address subsequent incidents that raised the compatibility question, looking at changing attitudes and behaviour over time and the implications for the nature of both institutions.     

The futures past of the Women,Peace and Security agenda

The Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda has developed at the United Nations over the course of the past 15 years, and there have been critical engagements with it for nearly as long. In this article, we first take stock of the operationalization of the WPS agenda, reviewing its implementation across a number of sectors. In the second section, we expose the tensions that have marked the WPS agenda from the start. With others, we argue that there has been a narrowing of the agenda's original scope, reducing it to the traditional politics of security rather than reimagining what security means. We highlight this reduction primarily through an analysis of the tension between the ‘participation’ and ‘protection’ pillars of the agenda. Further, we argue that the WPS agenda faces a current challenge in terms of the actors entrusted with it. Although in some ways involving civil society, the consolidations and implementation of WPS principles at the national and international levels have become increasingly state‐centric. Third, we imagine some possible futures of the agenda, from a trajectory characterized by increasing marginalization or even irrelevance, to new avenues like the emergent, albeit tentative, ‘Men, Peace and Security’ agenda. We close with an argument for a revival of the WPS agenda beyond a fixation on states, beyond a narrow heteronormative or essentialist focus on the ‘Women’ of the WPS resolutions, and moving towards the radical reimagining of security as peace that inspired the original architects of these important resolutions.     

OPTIMISATION DU TRACÉ D'UN CORRIDOR ROUTIER DANS LA RÉGION DU RIF AU MAROC DANS LE CONTEXTE DE LA LIAISON FIXE EUROPE-AFRIQUE À L'AIDE D'UN SIG

Cet article décrit une méthodologie basée sur l'utilisation d'un système d'information géographique (SIG) pour l'identification d'un corridor routier optimal dans la région du Rif au Maroc. L'optimisation a été réalisée en appliquant l'approche de propagation de l'onde frontale sur une surface de coûts cumulés en utilisant la pente comme contrainte dominante. Différents tests ont ensuite été réalisés afin de vérifier la faisabilité du corridor en fonction des caractéristiques physiographiques de la région de même que son efficacitéà contribuer au désenclavement du Rif, à mettre en valeur ses potentialités économiques et à améliorer le transit international de l'Europe vers l'Afrique du Nord. Les résultats obtenus ont permis de démontrer l'intérêt de construire une rocade autoroutière à travers le Rif. Les fonctions d'intégration de données multi-sources, d'analyse spatiale et de cartographie d'un SIG se sont révélées particulièrement efficaces pour ce genre d'étude qui peut être généralisée à d'autres contextes. This paper describes the use of a Geographic Information System (GIS) to identify an optimal corridor for the construction of a highway in the Rif region, in Morocco. The optimization is based on the front wave propagation approach, where slope was used as the dominant constraint. Different tests were conducted to verify the feasibility of the corridor in relation to the physiographic characteristics of the region and its efficiency in enhancing the economic potential of the Rif and in facilitating the international traffic between Europe and North Africa. The results demonstrated the numerous advantages of building a highway along the Mediterranean Sea. The analytical functions of a GIS, for the integration of multisource data, spatial analysis, and cartography, were particularly efficient in conducting a study like this, which can be adapted to other contexts.