bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Teams without Teamwork? Explaining the Call Centre Paradox
Authors: van den Broek Diane , Callaghan George , Thompson Paul
Published: August 2007

Call centres are evidently an inhospitable environment for teams given a work design based on individualized, largely routine work regulated heavily by technology and managerial scripts. The article explores a number of potential explanations for this paradox in the context of comparable case studies from the UK and Australia. The case studies con.rm that teamworking did not exist in any substantive or traditional sense within any of the plants. But it is argued that teams can exist in the absence of teamwork based largely on their normative bene.ts to management and to a much lesser extent team members. Even allowing for this differentiation, only one of the companies had sustained normative objectives and these were only partially successful. The existing sociotechnical design of call centres is not conducive to teams, but this may not be true of other types of service work.
Snares and silver bullets: disentangling the construct of formative assessment
Authors: Rea-Dickins Pauline , Gardner Sheena
Published: August 2007

This article explores the nature of formative assessment in a primary (elementary) language learning context. The research is situated in nine inner-city schools where an Early Years Intervention Project is being implemented to address problems of low levels of achievement in English, with specific reference to the language support of learners for whom English is an Additional Language.1 School-based assessment data are presented and analysed in relation to the construct of formative assessment. It is argued that the distinctions between formative and summative assessment are not as straightforward as sometimes portrayed and that the interplay between reliability and validity for purposes of class-based assessment is highly complex.
Item type comparisons of language comprehension tests
Authors: Spelberg Henk C. Lutje , de Boer Paulien , van den Bos Kees P.
Published: August 2007

Several test procedures are available to measure language comprehension. In this article two tests with different item types are compared. The tests are the Dutch Reynell test - in which the subject has to carry out verbal instructions - and the BELL test - in which the subject has to select which of four pictures best represents a given statement. We studied the contribution of the type of item, and the linguistic features of the item to the prediction of item difficulty. Both tests were administered to 64 Dutch kindergarten children with an average age of 70.3 months. The simple correlation between type of item and item difficulty is relatively high (.40). However, regression analyses indicate that type of item does not contribute significantly to the prediction of item difficulty. The linguistic features of the item, in contrast, do. The two tests cover successive age ranges. The results therefore indicate that the BELL test can be used as a follow up test of the Reynell test for language comprehension.
Applying general sign theory to testing language (verbal) and nonverbal abilities
Authors: Oller John W. , Kim Kunok , Choe Yongjae
Published: August 2007

A general theory of signs shows a deep logical dependency of nonverbal/performance tests on conventional linguistic signs. Two hypotheses follow

• Hypothesis 1: To the extent that nonverbal abilities can be measured, they must be positively correlated with primary language abilities

• Hypothesis 2: (a) In the early stages of acquiring a second or foreign language, proficiencies in the primary (stronger or native) language should correlate more strongly with nonverbal abilities than proficiencies in the nonprimary (weaker, second or foreign) language; and

(b) As persons approach greater parity between their primary and any non-primary language, correlations between nonverbal scores and proficiencies in the two languages should both be significantly positive, and should approach equality.

By contrast, the Cattell-Horn theory (Horn and Cattell, 1996; Horn, 1988) predicts about the same level of correlation throughout the course of development and Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences (Gardner, 1993) predicts that distinct intelligences should be uncorrelated. All three theories can be tested by examining the simple correlations of language proficiency measures with nonverbal IQ scores in intermediate and advanced nonprimary language learners.
The unified validity of the Four Skills Exam: applying Messick's framework
Authors: Guerrero Michael D.
Published: August 2007

In the USA, 17 states use Spanish-language proficiency tests to ensure that bilingual education teachers are able to deliver academic instruction in Spanish to school-age students. However, little is known about the tests’ validity. In this study the unified validity of the Four Skills Exam (FSE), used in New Mexico for nearly 18 years, was evaluated using Messick’s framework (1989). Through this analysis, the FSE was found to lack an adequate degree of validity due to questionable psychometric properties and factors external to the test. Messick’s framework offers bilingual educators a comprehensive blueprint for assessing the validity of these tests. The review of the FSE also elucidates pitfalls in bilingual education teacher language proficiency testing which other states should avoid.
Detecting DIF across the different language groups in a speaking test
Authors: Kim Mikyung
Published: August 2007

The investigation of differential item functioning (DIF) is crucial in language proficiency tests in which test-takers with diverse backgrounds are involved, because DIF items pose a considerable threat to the validity of tests. To date, DIF analysis in language testing has been conducted mainly for multiple-choice items. However, examining DIF with polytomous response items such as in writing and speaking tests should also be taken into consideration for validating tests. This study aims to investigate DIF across two different broad language groupings, Asian and European, in a speaking test in which the test-takers’ responses are rated polytomously. Data in this study were collected from 1038 nonnative speakers of English from France, Hong Kong, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and Thailand who took the SPEAK test in 1988 (see Educational Testing Service, 1985). The methods used for DIF analysis were the likelihood ratio test and the logistic regression procedure. The primary scoring categories of interest in this study were ‘grammar’, ‘pronunciation’ and ‘fluency.’ The results showed that ‘grammar’ and ‘pronunciation’ functioned differentially across the two groups. A content analysis of the DIF items suggested that the types and the numbers of scoring scales might influence the test validity. The study provides methodological information on differences between two approaches to DIF analysis and suggestions for future research.
Examining dialogue: another approach to content specification and to validating inferences drawn from test scores
Authors: Swain Merrill
Published: August 2007

In this article one aspect of the many interfaces between second language (L2) learning and L2 testing is examined. The aspect that is examined is the oral interaction - the dialogue - that occurs within small groups. Discussed from within a sociocultural theory of mind, the point is made that, in a group, performance is jointly constructed and distributed across the participants. Dialogues construct cognitive and strategic processes which in turn construct student performance, information which may be invaluable in validating inferences drawn from test scores. Furthermore, student dialogues provide opportunities for language learning, i.e., opportunities for the joint construction of knowledge. It is suggested that an examination of the content of these dialogues can provide test developers with targets for measurement. Other implications for L2 testing are also discussed.
An introduction to structural equation modelling for language assessment research
Authors: Kunnan Antony John
Published: August 2007

This article provides an introduction to structural equation modelling (SEM) for language assessment research in five sections. In Section I, the general objectives of SEM applications relevant to language assessment are presented. In Section II, a brief overview of SEM that considers the methodology and the statistical assumptions about data that have to be met. In Section III, the commonly used steps and concepts in SEM are presented. In Section IV, SEM application matters with example models are discussed. In Section V, recent critical discussions and some directions for future SEM applications in language assessment research are addressed.
Does the text matter in a multiple-choice test of comprehension? the case for the construct validity of TOEFL's minitalks
Authors: Freedle Roy , Kostin Irene
Published: August 2007

The current study addresses a specific construct validity issue regarding multiple-choice language-comprehension tests by focusing on TOEFL’s minitalk passages: Is there evidence that examinees attend to the text passages in answering the test items? To address this problem, we analysed a large sample ( n = 337) of minitalk items. The content and structure of the items and their associated text passages were represented by a set of predictor variables that included a wide variety of text and item characteristics identified from the experimental language-comprehension literature. Stepwise and hierarchical regression techniques showed that at least 33% of the item difficulty variance could be accounted for primarily by variables that reflected the content and structure of the whole passage and/or selected portions of the passage; item characteristics, however, accounted for very little of the variance. The pattern of these results was interpreted, with qualifications, as favouring the construct validity of TOEFL’s minitalks. Our methodology also allowed a detailed comparison between TOEFL reading and listening (minitalk) items. Several criticisms concerning multiple-choice language-comprehension tests were addressed. Future work is suggested.
A vocabulary-size test of controlled productive ability
Authors: Laufer Batia , Nation Paul
Published: August 2007

It is important in the design of the vocabulary component of a teaching program that teachers are able to discover the state of their learners’ vocabulary knowledge. It is also important that researchers can draw on a variety of vocabulary measures to investigate the nature of vocabulary growth. This study focuses on a controlled production measure of vocabulary consisting of items from five frequency levels, and using a completion item type like the following.

The garden was full of fra flowers.

The controlled-production vocabulary-levels test was found to be reliable, valid (in that the levels distinguished between different proficiency groups) and practical. There was a satisfactory degree of equivalence between two equivalent forms of the test.
The effect of topic variation in performance testing: the case of the chemistry TEACH test for international teaching assistants
Authors: Papajohn Dean
Published: August 2007

Topic is believed to be an important test-method characteristic in many types of language tests. Some test developers choose neutral test topics in order to nullify the effect of background knowledge. Yet there is a need to determine how well prospective international teaching assistants can communicate within their own field. Recent studies have compared test results between general and field-specific oral English tests. Yet field-specific performance tests for international teaching assistants often provide different topics within the same field for each examinee, assuming equivalency between topics. The comparison of general topics versus field-specific topics is unable to capture the full effect of topic. This study reports research into topic features and the effect topic variation has on a performance test, the chemistry TEACH test, designed for intrnational teaching assistants. Results suggest a relationship between topic of input (as defined by the topic features of concepts, math and calculations) and test scores on the chemistry TEACH test.
Revising and validating the 2000 Word Level and University Word Level Vocabulary Tests
Authors: Beglar David , Hunt Alan
Published: August 2007

Few researchers have undertaken detailed investigations of the reliability and validity of tests designed to measure vocabulary size. Thus, the purpose of this study was to carefully analyse and validate the revised versions of the 2000 Word Level and the University Word Level of Nation’s Vocabulary Levels Test (Nation 1990), which can be administered for the purposes of course planning and placement in language programs. In this study, 496 Japanese high school and university students completed four forms of the 2000 Word Level Test and 464 participants completed four forms of the University Word Level Test. Two new forms of each test were created and then examined using classical and Rasch item analyses. The new forms were found to be acceptably reliable (a = .84-.95), and the Rasch analysis revealed only 3 misfitting items ( k = 108). In addition, these forms had statistically significant correlations with the TOEFL, particularly for the reading and grammar subsections. A variety of evidence is then presented to support the notion that the tests are unidimensional. Finally, the authors suggest further improvements and new directions for future research.
Assessment in communication disorders: some observations on current issues
Authors: Marquardt Thomas P. , Gillam Ronald B.
Published: August 2007

The assessment of communication disorders is, by necessity, a behavioural description process. Standardized measures provide quantitative data that contribute to the identification of communication disorders, but test scores and normative comparisons are insufficient for describing the effects of impairment on performance in communicative settings. The importance of ecological validity in tests for communication disorders, the need for systematic observation and the potential biases in testing diverse populations are considered within the framework of identification and differential diagnosis of speech and language disorders. There are also communicative disorders that are clinically recognized, but which cannot be reliably identified following standardized testing and systematic observation in communicative settings. For these disorders, there is a continuing need for research based on behavioural description to develop a theoretical understanding of the disorder that can guide reliable assessment, identification and intervention.
A cognitive neuropsychological approach to the assessment and remediation of acquired dysgraphia
Authors: Cardell Elizabeth A. , Chenery Helen J.
Published: August 2007

This study used a cognitive neuropsychological approach to investigate a case of acquired dysgraphia in an adult who had sustained focal brain damage. The interpretation and remediation of her dysgraphia were guided by reference to a detailed model describing the functional architecture of the normal language processing system. The aims of the study were to investigate the usefulness of model-based assessment1) in identifying the precise nature of the underlying mechanisms responsible for the dysgraphia; and2) in designing an efficacious treatment programme that was informed by theories of normal language processing.

Interpretation of detailed pre-therapy testing using tasks derived from current psycholinguistic models suggested that the subject’s dysgraphia arose from deficits with processing low-imageability semantic information as well as from a breakdown at the level of the graphemic assembly buffer. Two treatment phases which targeted the identified deficit areas were implemented using a multiple baseline (across behaviours) methodology. The first treatment consisted of semantic therapy targeting the writing of low-imageability words, and the second treatment involved a segmentation hierarchy for treating the writing of non-words. The results indicated positive and selective treatment effects as well as strong generalization effects to related items and functions. The results are discussed in the light of current psycholinguistic theories of model-based assessment and treatment.
Effects of acute tyrosine depletion on subjective craving and selective processing of smoking-related cues in abstinent cigarette smokers
Authors: Munafó Marcus R. , Mannie Zola N. , Cowen Philip J. , Harmer Catherine J. , McTavish Sarah B.
Published: August 2007

We investigated the impact of the administration of a tyrosine-depleting amino acid mixture compared to a balanced mixture on measures of mood, craving and selective processing of smoking-related cues in healthy cigarette smokers instructed to abstain from smoking for 12 h prior to, and during, the experiment. A modified stroop task was used to index selective processing of smoking-related cues.

We observed evidence for an increase in subjective craving among males, and an attenuation of the selective processing of smoking-related cues compared to control cues among females, in the tyrosine-depleting condition compared to the balanced condition. No effects of mixture were observed on measures of subjective mood.

These results tentatively support for the role of dopaminergic neurotransmission in mediating the response of cigarette smokers to smoking-related cues. In addition, these results also provide further evidence for sex differences in the factors that maintain cigarette smoking, in particular with respect to conditioned reinforcement of smoking behaviour, and suggest that the relationship between subjective craving and selective processing of smoking-related cues may differ in males and females.
Recurrent priapism during treatment with clozapine, quetiapine and haloperidol
Authors: Casiano Hygiea , Globerman Daniel , Enns Murray W.
Published: August 2007

The following is a letter to the editor that represents a case of recurrent priapism. The patient received clozapine, quetiapine and haloperidol and had the adverse reaction of priapism, one episode of which required surgical intervention. This case highlights the need for physicians to be aware of the potential for this serious adverse effect and to be especially mindful to carefully monitor those patients who have already had one episode of priapism as they may be at risk for recurrence.
Chronic citalopram treatment does not sensitize the adrenal gland to ACTH (1—24) in rats
Authors: Hesketh S.A. , Leggett J.D. , Jessop Henry D.S.
Published: August 2007

We have previously reported that rats exposed chronically to citalopram are able to elicit a corticosterone but not adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) response to restraint stress. Thus we proposed the hypothesis that the corticosterone response to restraint in citalopram-treated rats was maintained due to increased adrenal sensitivity to lower ACTH levels. To test this hypothesis, we intravenously injected ACTH (1—24) to rats (dose 3 ng/rat) exposed to citalopram through minipump infusion for 14 days and to control rats (no citalopram). ACTH significantly increased plasma corticosterone levels in both control and citalopram treated rats over a period of 120 min. There was no significant difference in plasma corticosterone between citalopram treated rats and control rats at any time point. Therefore we conclude that, under these experimental conditions, citalopram does not appear to sensitize the rodent adrenal gland to ACTH, and that other mechanisms may be responsible for the ACTH/corticosterone disconnection.
Effects of acute tiagabine administration on aggressive responses of adult male parolees
Authors: Lieving Lori M , Cherek Don R , Lane Scott D , Tcheremissine Oleg V , Nouvion Sylvain O
Published: August 2007

Experimental and clinical studies have supported a relationship between γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and aggressive behavior in non-humans and humans. Tiagabine is a GABA uptake inhibitor that has been shown to produce acute behavioral effects in animals. In addition, tiagabine has been shown to decrease aggression in agitated patients when administered chronically. The present study was designed to investigate the effects of acute administration of tiagabine on aggressive responding on a laboratory task in adult humans. Ten adult males participated in experimental sessions on the Point Subtraction Aggression Paradigm (PSAP), which provided subjects with aggressive, escape, and monetary-reinforced response options. All subjects received four acute oral doses of Tiagabine (4, 8, 12 and 16 mg) separated by placebo sessions. Tiagabine decreased aggression at doses that either did not affect, or affected to a lesser extent, monetary-reinforced responding. The results are consistent with some prior research using the PSAP showing a possible unique role for GABA in the regulation of human aggression. A possible behavioral mechanism for the rate-decreasing effects on aggressive responding produced in the present study is that tiagabine may modify aggressive responding by suppressing reactions to aversive stimuli.
Chronic heroin and cocaine abuse is associated with decreased serum concentrations of the nerve growth factor and brain-derived neurotrophic factor
Authors: Angelucci Francesco , Ricci Valerio , Pomponi Massimiliano , Conte Gianluigi , Mathé Aleksander A. , Attilio Tonali Pietro , Bria Pietro
Published: August 2007

Chronic cocaine and heroin users display a variety of central nervous system (CNS) dysfunctions including impaired attention, learning, memory, reaction time, cognitive flexibility, impulse control and selective processing. These findings suggest that these drugs may alter normal brain functions and possibly cause neurotoxicity. Neurotrophins are a class of proteins that serve as survival factors for CNS neurons. In particular, nerve growth factor (NGF) plays an important role in the survival and function of cholinergic neurons while brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is involved in synaptic plasticity and in the maintenance of midbrain dopaminergic and cholinergic neurons. In the present study, we measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) the NGF and BDNF levels in serum of three groups of subjects: heroin-dependent patients, cocaine-dependent patients and healthy volunteers. Our goal was to identify possible change in serum neurotrophins in heroin and cocaine users. BDNF was decreased in heroin users whereas NGF was decreased in both heroin and cocaine users. These findings indicate that NGF and BDNF may play a role in the neurotoxicity and addiction induced by these drugs. In view of the neurotrophin hypothesis of schizophrenia the data also suggest that reduced level of neurotrophins may increase the risk of developing psychosis in drug users.
Nomadic fantasies: producing landscapes of mobility in German southwest Africa
Authors: Noyes John K.
Published: August 2007

In nineteenth-century Germany, ‘nomadism’ was an epithet frequently applied with little distinction to pastoralist, hunter-gatherer and semi-agriculturalist societies. It was used as a description not only of actual indigenous social organizations or economies, but also of a propensity to wander, an inconstancy and hence an obstacle to civilization. This was not confined to anthropological and ethnographic discourse. It also influenced policymaking in the colonies, particularly in discussions of land rights and land utilization. At the same time, discussions of nomadism, when applied to indigenous populations, awakened associations with a key theme in German national identity and national history - that the German nation had once shared this love of wandering. Debates on nomadism in the colonies expressed certain perceptions of German identity, but also anxieties about the mobility of labour and capital. The example chosen in this paper is German southwest Africa at the turn of the century.
Putting maps in their place: the demise of the Falkland Islands Dependency Survey and the mapping of Antarctica, 1945-1962
Authors: Dodds Klaus
Published: August 2007

This paper explores the political and scientific justification for the mapping of Antarctica by the Falkland Islands Dependency Survey (FIDS). As with the ‘Great Game’ of the nineteenth century, cartography was politics by another means. Thereafter, consideration is given to how the maps and surveys of Antarctica reflected British anxieties concerning Argentina in the immediate postwar world. As a rival claimant state in the South Atlantic, Argentine surveyors and administrators were a source of considerable concern to the FIDS. In the field, however, the FIDS surveyors were expected to concentrate on surveying while at the same time plotting these foreign incursions in Antarctica. The methods and processes involved in collating information into map form are considered. Ironically, the greatest geopolitical challenge to these aspirations came from the United States rather than Argentina or even Chile. Finally, the paper concludes with the changing political and cartographic remit of the FIDS in the era of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty.
Something straight in our landscapes: looking at the ‘Lemieux effect’ in Quebec nationalism
Authors: Desbiens Caroline
Published: August 2007

The production of the painter Jean Paul Lemieux is examined in the context of Quebec nationalism and its quest to define a Québécois territoriality. Prior to the independence referendum of 1995, the separatist Parti Québécois produced a ‘Declaration of sovereignty’ which was circulated throughout the province both in a text and video format. Focusing on territory rather than ethnicity, the language of the declaration sought to move away from francophone cultural politics to build a more inclusive platform for the nation. This movement toward a territorial nationalism was disrupted by the landscape imagery of the video, which was released simultaneously with the text. Composed almost exclusively of long, static, horizontal shots, the video of the declaration conveys the territory of Quebec as an empty space devoid of people and history. Looking at Jean Paul Lemieux’s use of a similar - yet differently coded - visual language in his own landscapes, I explore the complex process of collective authorship and response that enables the imaging of communities.
In search of primeval Russia: stylistic evolution in the landscapes of Nicholas Roerich, 1897-1914
Authors: McCannon John
Published: August 2007

During the first decade and a half of his career, the Russian painter and stage designer Nicholas Roerich (Nikolai Rerikh) (1874-1947) gained renown for depicting his native land’s ancient past in a manner that was supremely creative yet also historically accurate. However, during this period, which lasted roughly from his graduation from the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in 1897 to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Roerich’s painterly style and overall world-view underwent major changes. Several factors - including a great love for archaeology, strong feelings about the relationship between humankind and the environment, and a deep interest in mysticism and Asian philosophy - caused him to abandon his early programme of faithfully rendering scenes from Russia’s early history. Increasingly, Roerich painted ancient Russia’s landscape metaphorically, interpreting it first as a crossroads of Eurasian cultures, then as a pristine, primeval wilderness in which humanity lived not only in harmony with the natural world but also in a state of spiritual purity. This archaism, rather than any particular ‘Russian-ness’, became his central preoccupation. Ironically, this transformation came about as he completed what is generally considered to be his most famous images of ‘Russia’: his set and costume designs for Stravinsky’s The rite of spring (1913). After the mid-1910s, Roerich - although he never ceased to paint the Russian past - found Asian landscapes to be more conducive symbols for his inner visions and spiritual convictions.
Russkii inok: the spiritual landscape of Mikhail Nesterov
Authors: Gleason Abbott
Published: August 2007

The career of the Russian painter Mikhail Nesterov suggests the particular way in which Russian modernism was affected both by the unusually literary nature of the dominant pre-modern tendencies in Russian art and also by religio-political preoccupations, which were stronger in Russia than elsewhere in Europe. His experience also gives a fascinating example of how even a painter deeply hostile to the Russian Revolution of 1917 could regroup and continue his career.
‘I object to rain that is cheerless’: landscape art and the Stalinist aesthetic imagination
Authors: Bassin Mark
Published: August 2007

This essay considers discourses around nature and landscape in the Soviet art criticism of the Stalin period. Rather than being a genre that was neglected or in some way subordinated to the themes of industrial construction and socialist transformation, the depiction of nature was a major preoccupation of Socialist Realism. Indeed, it became progressively stronger as the Stalinist period developed from the 1930s to the early 1950s. There was a common belief that the most important Soviet political and social values could be conveyed through the imagery of the natural landscape, and there was much discussion in the literature as to how the ideological messages could best be articulated. An examination of this discourse reveals, however, that the semantic potentials of landscape art ran in very different directions. Thus while Stalinist art was eminently successful in ‘politicizing’ the representation of the natural world, it was manifestly unable to remove the ambiguous and even contradictory nature of the messages that resulted.
Guns, Game and the Grandee: The Cultural Politics of Deerstalking in the Scottish Highlands
Authors: Lorimer Hayden
Published: August 2007

This paper considers how the concentrated pattern of private landownership in the Scottish Highlands can be understood in relation to the field sport of deerstalking. Focusing on developments during the interwar years, it demonstrates how a series of connected representational practices, embodied rituals and political strategies were deployed by the sporting and landed community in defence of this elite leisure activity. These power-laden strategies coalesced into a distinctive culture of nature, which, although in part a continuation of tendencies set in train during the nineteenth century, also embraced new rhetorics of nationhood, ecological thought and landscape preservation. The paper demonstrates how humans, animals, technologies, science, localized history and popular memory were all drawn into deerstalking’s unequally weighted networks of association. Ultimately it asserts that the motif of custodianship and tradition commonly associated with modern sporting landownership in the Highlands was, and still is, used as an effective means to retain hegemonic control of the land resource.
Towards A Critical Geography of Architecture: The Case of an Ersatz Colosseum
Authors: Lees Loretta
Published: August 2007

This paper argues that an architectural geography should be about more than just representation. For both as a practice and a product architecture is performative in the sense that it involves ongoing social practices through which space is continually shaped and inhabited. I examine previous geographies of architecture from the Berkeley School to political semiotics, and argue that geographers have had relatively little to say about the practical and affective or ‘nonrepresentational’ import of architecture. I use the controversy over Vancouver’s new Public Library building as a springboard for considering how we might conceive of a more critical and politically progressive geography of architecture. The library’s Colosseum design recalls the origins of western civilization, and is seen by some Vancouverites to be an insensitive representation of a multicultural city of the Pacific. I seek to push geographers beyond this contemplative framing of architectural form towards a more active and embodied engagement with the lived building.
Nothing: The Hole, the Holy, the Whole
Authors: Metcalfe Andrew
Published: August 2007

Although we routinely talk of distance, separation always retains an implicit sense of connection. Surrounding every thing is no-thing, a ground or horizon which is and isn’t there. This nothing is formless flesh which holds in place the things that, in turn, hold it. It is the presence of an absence, the divine or spiritual that allows things. Inspired by Durkheimian understandings of the wonderful and dreadful sacredness of sociality, this paper talks about relationality without reducing it to the fleshless interaction model. It tries to sing to joyous life the space of the constitutive ground in between.
Culture Versus Commerce: The Libby Prison Museum and the Image of Chicago,1889-1899
Authors: Hannaford Katharine W.
Published: August 2007

This paper examines the complex relationship of museums to urban landscape production and image creation in Chicago in the 1890s. In the late nineteenth century American elites transformed museums from entertainment-oriented commercial affairs to public institutions that represented their home cities both locally and nationally. The Libby Prison Museum, a collection of Civil War artefacts housed in an actual Confederate prison reconstructed in Chicago, spanned the peak years of this transition and illustrates the tensions it engendered. Faced with negative evaluations by the national press, the museum’s directors attempted to assert its cultural legitimacy as well as that of the city of Chicago, yet their claims were skewed by a longstanding rhetorical tradition which celebrated the city as a place of startling contrasts. They were equally hampered by their adherence to older aesthetic standards and cultural practices, which were out of tune with their ostensible goals. The directors ultimately contradicted their own definition of both the museum and the city, demonstrating that the image of a city, built up over many years of accumulated visual and textual representations, is powerfully self-perpetuating, while cultural institutions can be heavily influenced by tradition and inherited conventions even as they undergo change.
Water Towers: A Study in the Cultural Geographies of Zionist Mythology
Authors: Azaryahu Maoz
Published: August 2007

This paper examines the figuring of water towers in Zionist mythology by focusing on three symbolic functions: the iconographic, the commemorative and the nostalgic. The icono-graphic function pertains to the iconic employment of water towers in pictorial depictions of the Zionist settlement landscapes. The commemorative function refers to the transformation of particular water towers into war memorials of Israel’s War of Independence. The nostalgic function relates to the valorization of defunct water towers as elements of local heritage and material symbols of local identity. Operative in different historical periods, political contexts and cultural settings, these symbolic functions pertained to particular Zionist myths and were productive in the ongoing formation of Zionist cultural geographies of modernity, tradition, memory and nostalgia.
Transnational Livelihoods and Landscapes: Political Ecologies of Globalization
Authors: Bebbington A. J. , Batterbury S. P.J.
Published: August 2007

This paper introduces a collection of articles on ‘Transnational livelihoods and landscapes’. We outline the analytical value of grounding political ecologies of globalization in notions of livelihood, scale, place and network. This requires an understanding of the linkages between rural people to global processes. We argue that the exploitation of these linkages can, under certain circumstances, result in new options and markets for rural people in marginal regions, even though many rural societies also confront serious political, environmental and economic challenges that likewise derive from globalization.
Globalized Andes? Livelihoods, Landscapes and Development
Authors: Bebbington Anthony
Published: August 2007

Contemporary globalization in the Andes challenges the sustainability and quality of rural livelihoods. However, it is also the case that rural people have often addressed these destructive dimensions of economic globalization through a progressively deeper engagement in other types of globalized relationship. They have done this by organizing, through engagements with networks linking them to international actors, and through participation in new product and labor markets. While such global entanglements do not guarantee local development and empowerment, they offer one of the few ways to confront the demise of rural localities.

This paper discusses such sets of globalized relationships in four localities in Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru. Particular attention is paid to the ways in which the emergence and activities of local organizations and social movements have been affected by the nature of their relationships with wider transnational development networks, and the constraints and possibilities that come with these relationships. The cases demonstrate how forms of global entanglement vary greatly across sites, and so suggest that the effects of globalization on livelihoods and landscapes are not easy to judge normatively or ex ante. Instead they imply that rather than speaking of globalization generically, it is important to consider the types and sequences of globalized relationships in which people and places have been enmeshed. This suggests the need for historically situated studies of ‘glocalization’ in order to understand both the actual processes of livelihood change under conditions of globalization, and the conditions under which more sustainable and locally governed rural livelihoods and landscapes might be built.
Landscapes of Diversity: A Local Political Ecology of Livelihood Diversification in South-Western Niger
Authors: Batterbury Simon
Published: August 2007

The landscapes created by livelihood diversification in rural Africa result from human activity, from biophysical processes, and from their interrelations. The paper explores these interrelationships through analysis of ‘productive bricolage’ -the ways in which rural people in one of Africa’s most disadvantaged countries have constructed a livelihood system that is a response to local constraints and opportunities, and to broader patterns of income-generating possibilities. Zarma farmers in south-west Niger inhabit a region where the political economy has helped fuel economic migration and a partial withdrawal from agriculture, and has significantly altered social relationships and labour patterns in and between households. Zarma responses to these conditions include income diversification, and these activities are expressed in their fields and their farms, as well as in their economic and locational choices. Attempts to build bridges between the concerns of a geographically aware ‘local political ecology’, concerned with these patterns of livelihood dynamics and resource use, and the new cultural geography of landscape must continue to pay attention to material practices enacted through human agency. Social and environmental change is a fluid, non-linear, and dynamic process in drylands that are marginal to the globalized economic system.
‘Placing nature’: the politics of collaboration and represent ation in the struggle for La Sierra in San Luis, Colorado
Authors: Wilson Randall K.
Published: August 2007

Collaboration among rural communities and resource management agencies represents an increasing trend in US public lands management and conflict resolution. This paper examines the failed effort of the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant Commission to resolve a dispute over local land-use rights in San Luis, Colorado. The Commission’s proposal to purchase the land on behalf of the state and restore historical usufruct rights was hindered by a conceptual framework reflecting colonialist socio-environmental relations. The conceptual incongruence between this framework and the ‘alternative’ environmental values and perspectives the Commission sought to accommodate produced tensions and inconsistencies in the Commission’s attempt to justify the proposal. These tensions are expressed through the dialectical representations of nature and place. Presentations of place serve simultaneously to divide ‘nature’ from ‘society’ and attach externalized values and meanings to ‘nature’ as part of a place identity. In this way, nature becomes ‘placed.’
Changing identities, changing landscapes: human-land relations in transition in the Aspre, Roussillon
Authors: O’Rourke Eileen
Published: August 2007

Agriculture is no longer the sole or principal activity in many hitherto rural areas, resulting in a redefinition of rural spaces which involves multiple actors and multiple variables, ranging from agriculture to tourism, forestry, nature conservation, landscape and heritage. Nowhere is this land-use conflict more apparent than along the shores and hills of the Mediterranean. This paper explores the changing relationship between society and environment in the Mediterranean arrière-pays of the Aspre, Roussillon. It focuses on the different perceptions of land degradation held by the various actors impacting on this space. In order to glimpse the meanings behind these perception filters, the landscape is positioned within its historical, geographical and socio-cultural context. The study suggests that in the Aspre, we are witnessing a turmoil of changing social identities within changing landscapes, which is misclassified as environmental degradation.
Finding England everywhere: regional identity and the construction of national identity, 1890-1940
Authors: Brace Catherine
Published: August 2007

This paper examines the relationship between regional and national identity in England in the first half of the twentieth century. It explores the ways in which England was imaginatively constructed through regional identities and their uniqueness. It further argues that this amounted to a powerful myth of regionalism in England which informed a discourse of national unity, particularly in the interwar years. Taking the example of the Cotswolds - a limestone hill region in central southern England - the paper shows how a unique regional identity was constructed through a corpus of local writing which also invoked the Cotswolds as an ideal version of England. The paper also examines more wide-ranging examples found in topographical writing from the first half of the twentieth century which reveal how England’s regions were mobilized to represent something of the nation.
Contested urban landscapes of nationalism: the case of Taipei
Authors: Leitner Helga , Kang Petei
Published: August 2007

We discuss how Chinese Nationalist political leaders usurped the urban landscape of Taipei to promote the concept of a Chinese nation and national identity in an effort to legitimize their right to political power. The result was the creation of a cityscape which symbolizes the belongingness of the inhabitants of Taiwan to the Chinese nation and which celebrates Chinese Nationalist heroes. In the recent past, oppositional political parties and social movements have challenged these inscriptions and reappropriated the urban landscape to contest both the legitimacy of Nationalist political power and the concept of the Chinese nation promoted by Nationalists. Contestations involved the promotion of an alternative Taiwanese nation and national identity, as well as the questioning by aboriginal people of the Taiwanese nation as a unitary category.
Casualty Care during the First World War: The Experience of the Royal Navy
Authors: Herrick Claire E.J.
Published: August 2007

The medical arrangements of the Royal Navy at sea during the First World War have, in stark contrast to those of the British army, received little attention from historians. The dilemmas facing medical officers serving with the navy afloat have been, in effect, a `casualty' of the perceived inactivity of the Royal Navy during the war as a whole. What this article examines is the many problems facing medical officers throughout the war, and how these problems related more broadly to the complex and unexpected nature of life aboard a `modern' fleet, in a `modern' war at sea. The focus of the article is the treatment and evacuation of sailors wounded in action during the war. Medical officers faced three main problems: lack of experience of naval warfare; the need to balance medical needs with the fighting efficiency of a ship's crew; and the restrictive nature of the conditions prevailing in the many vessels of the fleet, conditions which hindered the performance of even the most basic of medical duties. For medical officers the key issue was how to deliver basic medical care in the primitive conditions on board the ships of the fleet on active service. Although in comparison with the army the navy remained in a state of relative inactivity, this article suggests that far from being a rare occurrence, casualty care, or more correctly, its planning and elaboration, was a central concern for the naval medical service, and the naval authorities. This stemmed from the potential for devastating losses in even the briefest of engagements with the enemy. But more than this, medical officers had a burgeoning role in the maintenance of the mental balance, or morale of each ship's crew. Their preparations for action had more than just a practical medical function.
Two American Wars in Asia: Successful Colonial Warfare in the Philippines and Cold War Failure in Vietnam
Authors: Gates John M.
Published: August 2007

Historians expect interpretations to be revised as a consequence of new information uncovered and new perspectives brought to bear. In an ideal world of scholarship, evidence-based interpretations triumph over less well-substantiated rivals, both within the community of historians and in the public at large. A survey of a few of the rival interpretations of both the American war to conquer the Philippines at the start of the twentieth century and also the later American conflict in Vietnam indicates that the reality of historical scholarship falls far short of the ideal. The difficulty of revising widely held but flawed interpretations raises a number of questions regarding the nature of historical scholarship and has led the author to a rather pessimistic view regarding their answers.
The Ottoman Crisis of May 1915 at Gallipoli
Authors: Travers Tim
Published: August 2007

The article first considers the difficulties and potential of researching the Gallipoli/Canakkale campaign in the General Staff archives in Ankara, Turkey. Attention is paid to the Ottoman (Turkish) crises in early May 1915. Normally, historians use English-language sources to focus on Allied problems, but Ottoman, Turkish and one German source in particular allow an investigation of two Ottoman crises. One relates to the extreme disorganization of the two Ottoman attacks in early May, and the other to the disagreement over tactics between Liman von Sanders (commanding Ottoman forces in Gallipoli/Canakkale), and the Ottoman supreme commander, Enver Pasa. Ultimately, the two crisis are resolved. It is argued that historians generally undervalue the difficulties faced by the Ottomans (Turks) in early May 1915.