Segregation,regulation, and the gendering of space at the University of Wales,Bangor, 1884–1907

ABSTRACT

In 1892, the Senate of the University College of North Wales in Bangor conducted an enquiry into the behaviour of Frances Hughes, Lady Principal of the women’s hall of residence, for defamatory remarks she had made about one of her students. Her accusations instigated a scandal that rocked the provincial college to its core, led to two separate libel lawsuits, and was even mentioned in the House of Lords. Using the ‘Bangor College Scandal’ as a case study, this article explores how student life in the new civic universities of the late-nineteenth century was shaped by regulation and supervision, as university authorities sought to avoid controversy through limiting mixed-gender interaction. It will argue that this control was often manifested in spatial terms, enabled by the deliberate design and arrangement of university spaces.     

Deepening,and repairing,the metabolic rift

This paper critically assesses the metabolic rift as a social, ecological, and historical concept describing the disruption of natural cycles and processes and ruptures in material human-nature relations under capitalism. As a social concept, the metabolic rift presumes that metabolism is understood in relation to the labour process. This conception, however, privileges the organisation of labour to the exclusion of the practice of labour, which we argue challenges its utility for analysing contemporary socio-environmental crises. As an ecological concept, the metabolic rift is based on outmoded understandings of (agro) ecosystems and inadequately describes relations and interactions between labour and ecological processes. Historically, the metabolic rift is integral to debates about the definitions and relations of capitalism, industrialism, and modernity as historical concepts. At the same time, it gives rise to an epistemic rift, insofar as the separation of the natural and social worlds comes to be expressed in social thought and critical theory, which have one-sidedly focused on the social. We argue that a reunification of the social and the ecological, in historical practice and in historical thought, is the key to repairing the metabolic rift, both conceptually and practically. The food sovereignty movement in this respect is exemplary.     

Personal Narratives, Social Justice, and the Law

North American writer Joan Didion’s eloquent testimonial speaks to the significance of storytelling in our lives. Personal storiesmake our lives meaningful. Part of this is because our stories, wittingly or not, become the means through which we fashion our identities for listeners. Or, as scholars from many disciplines have argued, identity and selfhoodare narrative accomplishments. In this formulation, an individual constructs a sense of self by telling stories or “personal narratives,” which describe “the evolution of an individual life over time and in social context” (Maynes et al. in Telling stories: the use of personal narratives in the social sciences and in history. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 2008, 2). While personal narratives contain unique autobiographical elements, the logics of storytelling and the values and beliefs of a particular time and place also influence the kinds of stories people tell. As feminist historian Mary Jo Maynes and her coauthors argue: “The stories that people tell about their lives are never simply individual, but are told in historically specific times and settings and draw on the rules and models in circulation that govern how story elements link together in narrative logics” (2008, 2). Put another way, even the most idiosyncratic story is always in some way social: what narrators decide to tell is often guided by the expectations of audiences (real or imagined); the conventions of various genres (such as life history or autobiography); as well as the broader cultural narratives located in particular historical times and places. In this light, personal narratives at once provide evidence of a storyteller’s viewpoint and experiences as well as the social and cultural milieu in which they live.     

Land,conflict, and political process: the case of the Lacandon Community,Chiapas, Mexico (1972–2012)

This contribution analyses how indigenous land disputes have taken place within a political process and the political responses to land tenure disputes. It does so by analysing the case of the Comunidad Zona Lacandona (Lacandon Community; Chiapas, Mexico) and the land tenure disputes in which it has been involved during the period 1972–2012. The paper argues that the Lacandon Community (LC) has a micro-corporatist relationship with the state and that its creation has brought its beneficiaries (comuneros) into an ongoing dynamic of conflict and cooperation with the state, fellow landed communities, social and non-governmental organisations and guerrillas. By analysing its relationship with the state and the 40-year long conflict, the paper presents the way in which the LC has defended its land rights within institutional channels as well as by means of contentious action. The essay also shows how conflict has been dealt with within a political process and contributes to the theoretical understanding of the categories of micro-corporatism and political process as they are employed in those cases where indigenous peoples enter into conflict over land. Data for this paper comes from interviews, agrarian archives, public information requests, newspaper articles and ethnographies on the case study and the region.     

Bullies, Gangs, Drugs, and School: Understanding the Overlap and the Role of Ethnicity and Urbanicity

Recent media attention has increased interest in behavioral, mental health, and academic correlates of involvement in bullying. Yet, there has not been much interest in investigating the co-occurrence of other health-risk behaviors, such as gang membership, weapon carrying, and substance use. The potential influence of contextual factors, such as youth ethnicity, urbanicity, and school characteristics, also has been overlooked in previous research. The current study examined different subtypes of involvement in bullying—as primarily a victim, as primarily a bully, as both a victim and bully, and no involvement—and the association with significant health-risk behaviors, including engaging in violence and substance use, as well as academic problems. The analyses use self-report data from 16,302 adolescents (50.3 % female, 62.2 % Caucasian, 37.8 % African American) enrolled in 52 high schools. A series of three-level HLM analyses revealed that bullies and bully/victims were generally at greatest of risk of being involved in violence, engaging in multiple types of substance use, and having academic problems. These findings extend prior research by emphasizing a potential link between involvement in bullying and multiple health-risk behaviors, particularly among urban and African American high school youth.     

Land,labor, and politics across the post-emancipation south

Mainstream history generally assumes that modern labor-management techniques originated in factories in Europe and North America employing ‘free’ wage laborers. The present explorative article argues, however, that important innovations were born outside the North Atlantic region (especially in the colonies), in attempts to control unfree workers; that some of these innovations date from long before the Industrial Revolution; and that knowledge about such innovations travelled through all parts of the globe.