Disciplining Subjectivity and Space: Representation, Film and its Material Effects

Although the distinction between representation and reality is increasingly blurred, I argue that representational discourses have material effects in everyday life. By moving “outside the text” I trace the messy terrain between visual discourse and everyday life in Downtown Eastside, Vancouver by examining two questions: (1) how do discursive productions of visual culture articulate, inscribe, and discipline space and subjectivity and (2) how do aboriginal women negotiate the material consequences of those representations? Using discourse and feminist analysis, I analyse how a documentary film, produced by the Vancouver Police Department, constructs spaces and subjectivities of deviance through techniques of realism and the moral gaze of the police officers. I argue that aboriginal women negotiate these deviant representations through their experiences of racism and sexism by police officers. Consequently, aboriginal women are rendered either hyper‐visible or invisible by police officers, marked by their gender, race, and class. Combining an analysis of the documentary film and in‐depth interviews with aboriginal women, I argue that critical geographers must consider the analytical spaces “outside of the text” to explore the material effects of visual representations.     

Disabilities,gender and employment: social exclusion,employment equity and Canadian banking1

People with disabilities, especially women, suffer from appallingly high rates of poverty, and paid work is frequently cited as a primary route out of poverty. I draw on feminist analyses of work and disability studies to reflect on the Canadian federal government's Employment Equity Act. I use the example of the ‘Big Six’ banks to investigate the numerical representation and occupational distribution of women and men with disabilities compared to their counterparts without disabilities. However, social justice in the workplace is at least as much about the quality of social relationships as it is about statistical effects. Reaching workplace equity also involves the creation of a workplace climate where people with disabilities experience supportive and responsive supervision, along with a sense of being respected and valued. I assess the banks’ progress towards identifying and eliminating discriminatory disabling barriers. I close with a discussion of workplace climate and locate the Act in the context of a broader network of change that includes challenging ableism.     

EVALUATING A COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT PROGRAM: A CITIZENS GROUP PERSPECTIVE

A citizens advisory group evaluation of a Community Development Block Grant program is compared with similar responses from city staff and city council members. All three groups provided quite positive assessments with the citizens group evaluations closer to staff responses than to council members. Objective indicators of program targeting also reveal that projects and funds have been committed to those areas of greatest need. An argument is made that citizen groups which are closely involved with certain urban programs may be able to provide useful evaluations of program performance.     

Gender,work and technology in the information workplace: from typewriters to ATMs

We consider the relations between gender and technology in the workplace, focusing on clerical work in the information workplace, especially the finance and insurance sector. Our goal is to excavate a ‘hidden history’ of how clerical work and the artifacts which sustain it have been understood and deployed under different cultural and economic circumstances. We employ an analysis of technosocial relations developed in Science and Technology Studies in which meanings about ‘technology’ and ‘society’ are mutually constitutive, changeable, and in need of maintenance in order to sustain their conceptual coherence. By drawing on examples from the USA and Canada, we argue that at various points over the twentieth century particular office technologies became ‘feminized’, or associated with characteristics coded as feminine, as a means of shaping spatial practice and social relations in the workplace.     

Breached Bodies and Home Invasions: Horrific representations of the feminized body and home

This article addresses abject representations of the feminized body and home. Abjection plays a key role in the creation of ambiguity and unease, encompassing the paradoxes of transgression, which is key to the critical examination of social relations and constructions. I conduct an investigation of portrayals of abject spaces in two sites, the body and the home, which are analyzed through three films: I Walked with a Zombie (1943), Evil Dead II (1987) and The Others (2001). In my analysis, I show how these films repeatedly portray feminized bodies and homes that, when transgressive, are seen as abject until order is re-established at the conclusion of the film. In these horror texts, boundaries dissolve and create potentially progressive moments which can disturb gendered norms and binaries, but ultimately, the boundaries are reified and re-normed, reinscribing patriarchal gender codings of space.

Cuerpos violados e invasiones del hogar: representaciones horrificas del cuerpo feminizada y el hogar

Éste artículo trata las representaciones abyecto del cuerpo feminizado y el hogar. Abyección tiene un papel critica en la creación de ambigüedad y inquietud, abarcando las paradojas de trasgresión, lo cual es importante para examinar críticamente las relaciones y construcciones sociales. Realizo una investigación de las interpretaciones de espacios abyectos en dos sitios, el cuerpo y el hogar, a través de tres películas: I Walked with a Zombie (1943), Evil Dead II (1987) y The Others (2001). En mi análisis, muestro como éstas películas interpretan repetidamente los cuerpos feminizados y hogares que, cuando trasgresivos, se ven como abyecto hasta que se reestablece el orden al fin de la película. En éstos textos horrores, las fronteras disuelven y crean momentos potencialmente progresivos que pueda perturbar el género y las normas y dicotomías, pero últimamente se reifican y se renormalizan las fronteras, reescribiendo el género y los patriarcal códigos de espacio.     

西南亚磨制石器工具与狩猎采集者的生存：向农业过渡的含义

最近对西南亚地区的研究显示,从采集向农业的过渡最早发生在拉文特南部,它可能很快,而且促成因素之一可能是干燥的气候。纳图菲时期（12800-10500B．P．）是植物驯化的开始,但是栽培的直接证据最早仅在前陶新石器A段（10500—9600／9300B·P．）约旦河谷和大马士革盆地的遗址中得到证明。所知最早的栽培品种是二粒小麦和大麦。     

Nurses across borders: global migration of registered nurses to the US

Like many other global north countries, the US is facing a nursing shortage. In the last few years, such nursing shortages have been identified as part of a broader ‘global crisis’ in nursing. Resorting to importing internationally educated nurses is a popular strategy to address the shortfall. Importing nurses into the US is not new. However, the current shortage is different because of greatly intensified efforts to recruit nurses from overseas, and because of the unprecedented scale of global nurse migration. This article uses an analysis of Census data to track the trends and geographies associated with internationally educated registered nurses (IERNs) in the US since 1980. I show that there are important subnational differences in the distribution of IERNs; most are concentrated in a few states. By paying particular attention to subnational geographies within the US, I draw attention to the variations in and implications of the distribution of IERNs and how this impacts public policy discourses associated with the transnational migration of IERNs into and within the US.