Contextualising gender empowerment at the grassroots: a tale of two policy initiatives

The policy environment on gender is fraught with contradictions and contestation of varying degrees in India that does not disappear even as recent transformative mode of participatory initiatives seem to place women’s agency at the core of empowerment agenda. Drawing from two collaborative projects at the grassroots, the paper argues that even well conceptualised projects miss the cutting edge distinction between women and gender and continue to engage with an instrumental logic of women’s development and empowerment at the expense of issues of gender equality and equity in translating the intention into action. It is also observed, however, that spatially embedded social and cultural specificities impact policy discourse resulting in very different outcomes of conceptually comparable policy formulations. According to the author acknowledging spatiality of experiences provides a vantage point to critically engage with context-specific strategies to resolve gendered conflicts and tensions resulting from confining social relations and normative gender codes.     

The incised valley of Baffin Bay,Texas: a tale of two climates

Baffin Bay, Texas is the flooded Last Glacial Maximum incised valley of the Los Olmos, San Fernando and Petronila Creeks along the north‐western Gulf of Mexico. Cores up to 17 m in length and high‐resolution seismic profiles were used to study the history of Baffin Bay over the last 10 kyr and to document the unusual depositional environments within the valley fill. The deposits of the Baffin Bay incised valley record two major and two minor events. Around 8·0 ka, the estuarine environments backstepped more than 15 km in response to an increase in the rate of sea‐level rise. Around 5·5 ka, these estuarine environments changed from environments similar to other estuaries of the northern Gulf of Mexico to the unusual suite of environments found today. Another minor flooding event occurred around 4·8 ka in which several internal spits were flooded. Some time after 4·0 ka, the upper‐bay mud‐flats experienced a progradational event. Because of its semi‐arid climate and isolation from the Gulf of Mexico, five depositional environments not found in the other incised‐valley fills of the northern Gulf of Mexico are found today within Baffin Bay. These deposits include well‐laminated carbonate and siliciclastic open‐bay muds, ooid beaches, shelly internal spits and barrier islands, serpulid worm‐tube reefs and prograding upper‐bay mud‐flats. Based on these unusual deposits, and other characteristics of Baffin Bay, five criteria are suggested to help identify incised valleys that filled in arid and semi‐arid climates. These criteria include the presence of: (i) hypersaline‐tolerant fauna; (ii) aeolian deposits; and (iii) carbonate and/or evaporite deposits; and the absence of: (iv) peat or other organic‐rich deposits in the upper bay and bay‐margin areas; and (v) well‐developed fluvially dominated bayhead deltas.     

Contrasting diagenesis of two Carboniferous Oolites from South Wales: a tale of climatic influence

Two oolites in the Dinantian (Mississippian/Lower Carboniferous) of Glamorgan, SW Britain, were deposited in similar depositional environments but have contrasting diagenetic histories. The Brofiscin and Gully Oolites occur in the upper parts of shallowing-upward sequences, formed through strandplain progradation and sand shoal and barrier growth upon a southward-dipping carbonate ramp. The Brofiscin Oolite is characterized by a first-generation cement of equant calcite spar, preferentially located at grain-contacts and forming non-isopachous fringes around grains, interpreted as meteoric vadose and phreatic in origin. Isopachous fibrous calcite fringes of marine origin are rather rare and occur only at a few horizons. Burial compaction was not important and porosity was occluded by poikilotopic calcite spar. Fitted grain-grain contacts locally occur and could be the result of near-surface vadose dissolution-compaction. Syntaxial overgrowths on echinoderm debris are common. Pre-compaction overgrowths are cloudy (inclusion-rich) and probably of meteoric origin, and post-compaction overgrowths are inclusion-free. By contrast, the Gully Oolite has little first-generation cement. However, marine fibrous calcite is common in oolitic intraclasts, as isopachous fringes of acicular calcite crystals closely associated with peloidal internal sediment; and early equant, drusy calcite spar occurs in the uppermost part of the Gully, beneath a prominent palaeokarst where pedogenic cements also occur. The major feature of Gully diagenesis is burial compaction, resulting in extensive grain-grain dissolution and microstylolitic grain contacts, and post-compaction poikilotopic spar occluded remaining porosity. The Brofiscin Oolite is pervasively dolomitized up-dip but the Gully Oolite for the most part only contains scattered pre-compaction dolomite rhombs and late veins of baroque dolomite, with less pervasive dolomitization. The difference in diagenetic style of the two Dinantian oolites is attributed to prevailing climate. The paucity of early meteoric cements in the Gully is a result of an arid climate, and this is supported by the nature of the capping palaeokarst. The abundant meteoric cements in the Brofiscin reflect a more humid climate, and effective meteoric recharge also resulted in up-dip pervasive mixing-zone dolomitization. The style of early diagenesis in these two oolites exerted a major control on the later burial diagenesis: in the Brofiscin, the early cements inhibited grain-grain dissolution and pressure solution, while these processes operated extensively in the Gully Oolite. Thus, prevailing climate can influence a limestone's diagenetic history from near-surface through into deep burial.     

A tale of two NICs: Hong Kong and Singapore at the crossroads

Industrialisation in developing countries is the result of a complex combination of external and internal forces. The role of the state is especially important, as the experiences of Hong Kong and Singapore clearly demonstrate. These two city states achieved spectacular economic growth rates throughout the 1960s and 1970s. In the mid-1980s, however, both face substantial problems of adjustment to changed economic and political circumstances, both external and internal. Some of these problems, and the responses which are being made to them, are outlined in this paper.     

Grenvillian and Caledonian evolution of eastern Svalbard – a tale of two orogenies

Svalbard is located in the north-west corner of the Barents Sea shelf and the Eurasian Plate, in a key area for interpreting Caledonian and older orogens in the Arctic region. Recent U–Pb dating in the Nordaustlandet Terrane of eastern Svalbard shows this terrane to consist of a Grenville-age basement, overlain by Neoproterozoic to early Palaeozoic platformal sediments, and intruded by Caledonian anatectic granites. Deformation, metamorphism and crustal anatectic magmatism occurred both during the Grenvillian (960–940 Ma) and Caledonian (450–410 Ma) orogenies. This evolution shows great similarities with that of eastern Greenland. In the classical model, eastern Svalbard is placed outboard of central east Greenland in pre-Caledonian time. Alternatively, it may have been located north-east of Greenland and transferred west and rotated anticlockwise during Caledonian continent–continent collision. In the Neoproterozoic, easternmost Svalbard may have been part of a wider area of Grenville-age crust, now fragmented and dispersed around the Arctic.     

Moscow and St. Petersburg, a sequence of capitals, a tale of two cities

From early modern times until the present, Russia (temporarily extended to the USSR) had two capital cities: Moscow and Petersburg. Moscow was the original capital, it was succeeded by Petersburg from the beginning of the 18th century. From the early 20th century onward Moscow again became the capital, but it became a different kind of capital at the end of the 20th century. The paper describes the evolution of the representation of the state function in the appearance of the capital cities by way of the state buildings, the monuments, the street names. In addition it analyses the fate of the former capitals (first Moscow, then Petersburg) in terms of their symbolic functions. Petersburg originated as a capital turned to the outside emphasizing Russia's European vocation, while Moscow was at first the inward looking capital city representing the distinctive spiritual values of Russia. Changes had to do with the changes in the nature of the successive political regimes and with the changing roles of the two cities within those regimes.     

A tale of two roads: Land tenure, poverty, and politics on the Guatemalan frontier

Agricultural frontiers are hot spots for the most dramatic land cover change in the history of humankind: forest conversion to agriculture. They are also areas of unusually rapid population growth and acute poverty, with scant access to public services and infrastructure. Although a large body of literature explores the determinants of land cover change on the frontier, one issue that has been largely unstudied is that of frontier political and socio-economic development. This paper reports on data from 28 communities along an agricultural frontier in a core conservation zone of the Maya Biosphere Reserve (MBR), where the predominant land tenure systems at the community level appear to be related not only to land use, but also to political organization and human development indicators.     

Flash floods and panic in the fossil record: a tale of 25 titanotheres

The Eocene rocks of southern Wyoming have provided a spectacular discovery of fossil bones and teeth. The remains of 25 titanotheres were found all together in one place less than 100 m square. Some of these horse-like mammals were young, some very old; and they were part of a herd. The geological and social evidence indicates that they perished together in a flash flood.     

Hydrocarbons and water in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin — A tale of two fluids

Detailed petroleum system analysis allows the direction and extent of hydrocarbon flow to be assessed. In most parts of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin, the major pulse of hydrocarbon generation and migration occurred as a result of the Laramide Orogeny in Late Cretaceous–Early Tertiary time. The distribution and chemistry of oils provide a detailed picture of fluid flow at this time with oil migration up to hundreds of kilometres observed. Hydrocarbon generation and migration mostly ceased once uplift of the basin commenced during Eocene time. As the basin evolved so did the hydrodynamic regime reflecting changes in topography, glaciation and other factors. This indicates possible problems with using present day hydrogeology to determine oil migration pathways although hydrogeology can help explain petroleum alteration.     

Sustainable lifestyles: Framing environmental action in and around the home

This paper examines the nature of environmental action in and around the home. Given the rise of local sustainable development and the emphasis placed on individual actions for sustainability, the paper examines the role of citizens in adopting sustainable lifestyles, incorporating a range of behavioural responses from energy saving and water conservation, to waste recycling and green consumption. Focussing on the debate in geography concerning the engagement of the public in environmental action, the paper argues that despite the assertions of those who advocate a deliberative approach to engagement (see [Owens, S., 2000. Engaging the public: information and deliberation in environmental policy. Environment and Planning A 32, 1141–1148]), an approach based on a social–psychological understanding of behaviour can have significant benefits. Such an approach is being developed by geographers in a range of settings and in this paper these developments are situated within the context of existing research that has identified environmental ‘activists’ in terms of their values, attitudes and demographic composition. The paper aims to examine environmental behaviour in relation to two key issues: (1) the way in which environmental action is framed in everyday practices (such as consumption behaviour) and (2) how these practices are reflected amongst different segments of the population to form lifestyle groups. The paper provides new insights for examining sustainable lifestyles that further our appreciation of how actions to help the environment are lived in everyday practices and framed by different lifestyle groups. Accordingly, the paper offers both academics and policy makers new insights into the potential use of focussing on lifestyle groups as a means for changing behaviour.     

Framing the picture of energy consumption in China

Natural Hazards - China plays a critical role in global carbon reduction in the context of mitigating climate change as the essence of climate change and the associated environmental issues is...     

A tale of two intrusions—where familiar rock names no longer suffice

Two contrasting intrusions in Greenland are described which both have extreme compositions and mineralogy. Ilímaussaq is part of the Mezoproterozoic Gardar Province of southern West Greenland. It developed by extreme fractionation in the crust of non‐remarkable weakly alkaline basic magmas leading to extraordinarily high levels of many rare elements. Indeed, in this intrusion the zirconium mineral, eudialyte, attains rock‐forming status. Gardiner in the East Greenland sector of the Palaeogene North Atlantic Igneous Province, was formed from nephelinitic magmas formed at great depth in the mantle by very low degrees of partial melting. Here, the magmas were so silica‐poor that there are large amounts of rocks composed of the melilite group of minerals, generally with perovskite (CaTiO₄) as a major phase. Thus, extreme compositions at Ilímaussaq were caused by fractionation to very small amounts of melt while at Gardiner it was caused by very small degrees of mantle melting. Both intrusions are known for fine specimens of rare minerals; in the case of Ilímaussaq over 200 have been described. Rocks such as those found here require their own names as they cannot be accommodated in the usual petrological nomenclature.     

Devonian Reef Formation in the Caspian Basin Framing

The Devonian reef formation in the Caspian Basin framing is related to two different formations. The Middle Devonian reefs are confined to an autochthonous terrigenous?carbonate sequence of the Eifelian–lower Frasnian interval marked by the appearance of isolated domal reefs. The middle–upper Frasnian reefs are related to the carbonate formation and represented by two types: (i) asymmetric reefs on walls of the deep-water bays opening toward the Caspian microcean-bay; and (ii) solitary, relatively symmetric (in transverse section) reefs within these bays. The reef formation was characterized by prominent cyclic pattern. The framework reef formation ended before the terminal Frasnian, i.e., before the Kellwasser Event, with which the biotic crisis and faunal mass extinction was related.     

Structural elements of the southern Thomson Orogen (Australian Tasmanides): a tale of megafolds

Abstract

Multi-scale, multi-method integration of geological constraints, with new interpretations of potential field data and seismic reflection data, has resulted in a comprehensive structural interpretation of the southern Thomson Orogen, eastern Australia. The interpretation reveals ～50 major faults and shear zones, many of which can be traced for several hundred kilometres. The interpretation suggests that the southern Thomson Orogen can be subdivided into several structural domains that can be distinguished by differences in: (i) spatial orientation, (ii) geographic distribution, and (iii) partly the timing of major faults, but also to varying degrees by (iv) the evolution and spatial orientation of other structural elements, such as folds, minor faults and fractures, (v) broader lithological trends, (vi) stratigraphy, and (vii) structural style. The two largest domains are the Western Structural Domain that contains numerous faults and shear zones, and the fold-dominated Eastern Structural Domain, which is more strongly affected by late- to post-Devonian thrusting than the Western Structural Domain. Notwithstanding their differences, the domains can be integrated into a coherent structural model for the southern Thomson Orogen, which suggests that the area represents a set of megafolds or oroclines, which may have formed during the Bindian Orogeny.     

Schumpeterian perspectives on entrepreneurship in economic development: a commentary

The unique relationship between the Schumpeterian entrepreneur and the process of innovation is examined in the first part of this paper. Because innovation is the result of an innate ‘unlearned act of insight’ by this Schumpeterin entrepreneur, contemporary theorists are unable to incorporate such a person into formal analytic theories of innovation and economic development. Nevertheless, it is shown that Schumpeter's perspectives on entrepreneurship remain the major seminal source of creative explanatory frameworks for the process of industrial change. The greater part of this paper provides a commentary on selected contemporary research efforts, at micro- and macroeconomic levels, which appear to strengthen certain weaknesses in Schumpeter's theory of the role of innovation in economic development.