Organic principles and research: What implications the new IFOAM principles of organic agriculture?

This paper examines some of the implications of the recently approved IFOAM principles of organic agriculture for organic research programmes. In examining the four principles we ask what types of research processes are likely to be in keeping with the principles, who should have the power to defi ne research agendas, and ultimately who should control the output from research programmes. We argue that participatory research programmes incorporating the values and experiences of wider stakeholder groups (including researchers, farmers and consumers) should be regarded as equally important as other research approaches as they are likely to meet many of the underlying intentions of the principles. We are also led to ask whether organic research is increasingly coming to be regarded as an end in itself, almost something apart from the principles, increasingly remote from the end users and consumers, rather than as part of an on-going process aiming to support and promote the organic movement

Narrating the Natural History Unit: institutional orderings and spatial strategies

This paper develops a conceptualisation of institutional geographies through participation observation and interviews in the BBC's Natural History Unit (NHU), and the approach of actor network theory. The methodological and theoretical tenets of actor network theory are examined for the insights they offer for understanding the achievements of this pre-eminent centre for the production of natural history films. The scope, scale and longevity of the NHU are analysed through the means by which localised institutional modes of ordering extend through space and over time. Drawing on empirical material, the paper outlines three different modes of ordering, which organise relations between actors in the film-making processes in different ways: prioritising different kinds of institutional arrangements, material resources and spatial strategies in the production of natural history films. Through these three modes of ordering, and through the topological insights of actor network theory, a series of overlapping and interlinked institutional geographies are revealed, through which the identity of the Unit as a centre of excellence for wildlife filmmaking is performed. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

Science, observation and entertainment: Competing visions of postwar British natural history television, 1946-1967

Popular culture is not the endpoint for the communication of fully developed scientific discourses; rather it constitutes a set of narratives, values and practices with which scientists have to engage in the heterogeneous professes of scientific work. In this paper I explore how one group of actors, involved in the development of both postwar natural history television and the professionalization of animal behaviour studies, manage this process. I draw inspiration from sociologists and historians of science, examining the boundary work involved in the definition and legitimation of scientific fields. Specifically, I chart the institution of animal ethology and natural history film-making in Britain through developing a relational account of the co-construction of this new science and its public form within the media. Substantively, the paper discusses the relationship between three genres of early natural history television, tracing their different associations with forms of public science, the spaces of the scientific field and the role of the camera as a tool of scientific observation. Through this analysis I account for the patterns of cooperation and divergence in the broadcasting and scientific visions of nature embedded in the first formations of the Natural History Unit of the British Broadcasting Corporation

[Review of] Richard D. Alba. Ethnic Identity: The Transformation of White America

Believing that a relatively small amount of research has been done with the ethnic identity of white Americans, Alba surveyed 524 whites in the Albany, New York, area. The majority were English, French, German, and Scottish whose forebears had been in this country for several generations. There were also numerous Irish, and among later immigrants, fairly large numbers of Italian and Polish descent

Corehead Orchard Tree Establishment and Grazing Damage Survey 2013: Report to the Borders Forest Trust

The research report describes the history of fruit orchards in Scotland and monitoring of efforts to establish a traditional fruit orchard. Comparisons are made of the performance of different fruit varieties during the first two years of growth and the effects of deer browsing are discussed

[Review of] David Greenslade. Welsh Feuer

Greenslade\u27 s rather mod title underlines his main thesis -- namely, that ethnic consciousness among Welsh descendants in North America is very high indeed. Both his own evidence and my own observations convince me that he is perfectly justified in his assertion. The one thing he does not really address is why

Aesthetics and didactic intention: the meeting place of beauty and information transmission in the 2006 community theatre production of swamp treasures.

This paper is the outcome of qualitative research undertaken around a community theatre production presented at the Hamilton Fuel Festival 2006. Swamp Treasures was an attempt to articulate in a theatre aesthetic the plight of the wetland regions in the Waikato province. There were 80 participants, a choir, an orchestra, an elaborate set, lighting design and over 30 specifically made theatre masks. I invited a group of eight teenagers to watch the performance and they were then interviewed, answering specific questions. The data were then considered using Kant's theories of beauty, aesthetics and communication as a reference point for the production's development, delivery and effectiveness. As Swamp Treasures was designed as a montage of impressions and points of view, the research has been able to evaluate the artistic efficacy of the differing styles and the aptitude of these techniques to transfer information

[Review of] Carol Trosset. Welshness Performed: Welsh Concepts of Person and Society

Wales, ruled by native princes until the thirteenth-century and subsequently governed from London, contains a population of about three million, twenty percent of which speak an indigenous language