Revisiting the region: 'ordinary' and 'exceptional' regions in the work of Hilda Ormsby 1917-1940

Increased interest in and recognition of the value of the region and particularly the 'ordinary region' as opposed to more-glamorous 'exceptional regions'. encourages us to reexplore the nature and purpose of what could be described as the first methodological blueprint of modern British geographical enquiry. Received histories of geography which give the impression of the production of geographical knowledge as a (near) universal male domain and the post-1960s critique of the regional approach as descriptive and nonhermeneutical have combined to make invisible the geographical work of most women (and some men) working in British universities in the first half of the 20th century. Despite this, insights can clearly be gained from biographical studies of both 'ordinary' geographers like Hilda Ormsby and the epistemology of the 'ordinary region'. This allows for a richer and more-nuanced critical historiography of geography, but there is also a potentially fruitful reciprocity in conversation between that history of geographical ideas and explorations of economic alterity. Regional studies which may have been dismissed as 'merely descriptive' can be found to articulate detailed accounts of local socioeconomic practices giving evidence of the historical grounding for current economic standing, including complex and sometimes resistant interaction with dominant modes of economic 'success'

Folklore’s Timeless Past, Ireland’s Present Past, and the Perception of Rural Houses in Early Historic Ireland

This study examines how the archaeology of historic Ireland has been interpreted. Two approaches to the history and archaeology of Ireland are identified. The first, the timeless past, has its roots in a neo-Lamarckian view of the past. This perspective was particularly developed in the work of geographer and ethnographer, Estyn Evans. The second view, associated in particular with a nationalist approach to Ireland's past, looked to the west of the country where it was believed the culture had been preserved largely unchanged and in its purest form. The continuing impact of these frameworks upon the interpretation of rural settlement in the period 1200-1700 is examined. It is argued that historians and archaeologists alike have underestimated the quality of buildings. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC