Abandoned Women and Spaces of the Exception

I consider two cases of legal abandonment in Vancouver—of murdered sex workers and live‐in caregivers on temporary work visas—in light of Agamben's claim that the generalized suspension of the law has become a dominant paradigm of government. I bring to Agamben's theory a concern to specify both the gendering and racialisation of these processes, and the many geographies that are integral to legal abandonment and the reduction of categories of people to 'bare life'. The case studies also allow me to explore two limit‐concepts that Agamben offers as a means to re‐envision political community: the refugee who refuses assimilation in the nation‐state, and the human so degraded as to exist beyond conventional humanist ethics of respect, dignity and responsibility.     

Collaboration as feminist strategy

I discuss my collaboration with Susan Hanson, which spanned a decade, culminating in our book, Gender, Work and Space. I focus on the productivity of our research collaboration. It led us to combine quantitative and qualitative methodologies, and economic geography and feminist cultural theory, in ways that allowed us to find an audience amongst, not only feminist geographers but also non-feminist political economists and planners. Our collaboration involved a large number of research assistants as well, and though this kind of collaboration is typically hidden in most research accounts, these research assistants were active producers of survey data. I consider this, as well as how they helped us to localize and situate our knowledge claims. Finally, I highlight the support that comes from a feminist collaboration.     

Islam in China: From Silk Road to Separatism

Islam came to China via the Silk Road, the great trading route beginning in the ancient Chinese capital of Xian. Islam flourished during the brutal but religiously tolerant Mongol Yuan dynasty. Harsh repressive measures were employed against the rebellious Muslims of the Qing dynasty. Islam has survived the tumultuous 20^th century and has experienced a revival in the new millennium. Following a brief historical overview, including some of China's relevant history of insurrection, rebellion and reforms, the nature of the Muslim community in China, along with pressing contemporary issues, will be outlined and discussed.     

A Late 13th and Early 14th-Century Tile Factory at Danbury,Essex

THE EXCAVATION of a practically complete medieval tile factory, in operation between c. 1275/85 and 1325/35, is described. The establishment comprised three buildings, interpreted as workmen's accommodation (A), a workshop (B), and a drying shed (C), together with two kilns, within a ditched roadside enclosure. The kilns were of the normal type, with two parallel flues; one had a walled stokepit reached by a tile staircase. The methods of tile manufacture and firing are discussed, the conclusions being partially supported by experimental evidence. The patterns of the decorated tiles are seen as derivatives of the Chertsey-Westminster School, mostly via the 13th-century ‘Central Essex Group’; a relationship with Penn is also suggested. Distribution of Danbury products is largely confined to the Chelmer valley, but a waterborne distribution is suggested by a group of floor tiles from Virginia Water, Surrey.     

Mobile Modernities: A South Asian family negotiates immigration,gender and class in Canada

For the modern Indian immigrant family ‘modernity’ is not necessarily found in the west. Using qualitative data drawn from in-depth interviews with one immigrant Sikh family, conducted in both Vancouver and the Punjab, we draw attention to the mobile and contradictory modernities family members have faced in their migration, settlement and subsequent transnational activities. We explore how class, gender and sexuality have framed the experiences of the members of this family in differential, partial and sometimes ironic ways. In so doing we construct a theoretical argument about the nature and geography of modernity, and how it relates to immigrant settlement in Canada.     

The Comparative Cost of Privatized Public School Transportation in Tennessee

This paper provides evidence from an empirical test of service contracting versus bureaucratic production of school bus transportation. Actual contracted cost of school bus service is compared to the estimate of in-house cost for providing the same service in 19 Tennessee public school systems. In-house cost is estimated from a two-output, two-input translog cost function regressed on 91 school systems. Contracted cost is found to be lower than in-house cost in 15 of the 19 contract systems. The potential savings equals 27% of average contract cost for these 15 systems. In the other 4 contract systems, actual cost exceeds the estimated in-house cost by 21% of their average contract cost.