'Are we there yet?' feminist political geographies

Our purpose in this paper is to chart the increasing and diffuse importance of feminist scholarship to political geography. We argue that feminist geographers have spatialized multiple forms of the political, rather than simply offering a singular feminist perspective to the literature. To canvas that breadth we suggest three distinct (albeit obviously related) takes on the political in feminist political geography: the distributive, the antagonistic, and the constitutive. This framework showcases the impressive breadth of feminist political geography and perhaps works against a sense of marginality that stems from such diffuseness. We illustrate our argument with particular reference to research that has appeared in Gender, Place and Culture over the past decade.     

Locating the “People Without History” in Histories of the Ancient Near East

Three books discussed here illustrate multidisciplinary approaches to studying ancient civilizations and a range of methodological and theoretical perspectives. They suggest that in addition to the traditional focus on elites and urban origins, we should analyze nonelites and smaller scale communities. I concur that focusing on elites gives an incomplete and inaccurate picture of life and culture in the ancient Near East. Instead, these books shed light on the “people without history” in the ancient Near East. This “social history” must be integrated into economic and political models of past cultures to fully understand ancient civilizations.     

Talking of Human Rights: Histories,Heritages, and Human Remains

While the rhetoric of human rights is now globally pervasive, the reality of rights implementation patently lags behind and violations continue to escalate worldwide. An examination of recent books demonstrates that rights talk occupies an increasingly central place in all subfields of anthropology. Problematically, anthropologists are excessively invoking “human rights” to imply a higher order of magnitude for the cases they study than if those cases were framed in terms of other rights and claims. Labeling everything a fundamental human right is detrimental to both ethics and accuracy, especially in the face of acknowledged differences in cultural and historical contexts.     

Normative theory and Europe

European integration has fascinated students of international relations and of history since the 1950s. Over the past 15 years or so it has begun to attract attention from political philosophers too. As a result, the nature of the theorizing has altered. Accordingly, this article presents some remarks on the transition from explanatory theory to normative political theory in relation to the EU, and on the context and nature of recent theoretical work. A topic of wide concern is whether and how the EU might be justified, and this is discussed in the light of an approach to public justification associated with the philosopher John Rawls. Some difficulties in applying this approach to international institutions are noted.     

Palaeoepidemiological Patterns of Trauma in a Medieval Nubian Skeletal Population

Evidence of trauma was investigated in a well-preserved skeletal sample from the Medieval Sudanese Nubian site of Kulubnarti. The skeletal materials derive from two temporally over-lapping Christian cemeteries, dating from the sixth to circa the sixteenth century. The available sample consisted of the skeletons of 146 adults which were investigated for fractures of the long bones, crania and the hands and feet, as well as for dislocations and muscle pulls. Results showed a high incidence of long bone fractures, seen especially in the forearm, and involving 33.5 per cent of individuals. Many of these lesions indicated quite severe injury, and an unusually high number of affected individuals (27 per cent) showed multiple long bone involvement. Conversely, only one possible cranial fracture was apparent. Fractures were also found in 13 hand and seven foot elements. In addition, one hip dislocation and evidence of pulled tendons in 11 individuals were also observed. Compared to other similarly controlled samples, the Kulubnarti population stands out for its high prevalence of healed fractures, the high proportion of multiple involvement and the severity of numerous lesions. The forbiddingly harsh and uneven terrain of this region of Nubia was most likely a major influence on the unusually high prevalence and pattern of traumatic lesions in this group. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Osteoarchaeol., 7 : 103–114 (1997) No. of Figures: 5. No. of Tables: 5. No. of References: 25.     

Mobilizing Women,Mobilizing Gender: is it mobilizing difference?

This article examines political activism in the United States to evaluate the extent to which the mobilization of women involves a mobilization of difference, with an attendant goal of building a more inclusive polity and citizenship. The analysis is based on an extensive survey of political attitudes and behaviors in four medium‐sized cities in the western United States and on the political opportunity structures within the cities. While it appears that gendered experiences and an idea of difference may motivate women to become involved in community and political activism, the patterns of their activism do not differ dramatically from those of men and no separate ‘spaces of politics’ for women seem to have been constructed through their activism. I argue that political opportunity structures—the institutions, ideas, and organizations—within the four localities play an important role in channeling women's activism. These findings suggest the importance of considering the contexts in which political identities and activities are given meaning and through which political communities are constructed.     

Genuine Community Engagement in Remote Dryland Regions: Natural Resource Management in Lake Eyre Basin

Remote dryland regions are characterised by sparse populations and socially marginalised voices which pose particular challenges to natural resource management. This paper considers the issue of how to achieve community engagement in regions with these characteristics. In doing so, the paper contributes to an expanding international research agenda focusing on the distinct characteristics of arid and semi‐arid regions under the heading of ‘dryland syndrome’. The paper draws on government liaison officer and local community perspectives of successful engagement in the case‐study region of Lake Eyre Basin, Australia. The results demonstrate that widely recognised characteristics of successful engagement are required but insufficient for genuine engagement in remote dryland regions. In addition to building trust through community ownership, being inclusive, effective communication, and adequate resources, genuine community engagement in drylands also requires respecting the extreme conditions and extraordinary variability of these areas. Residents of dryland regions seek genuine engagement yet engage opportunistically when seasons are conducive and when tangible outcomes are visible.