By any other name? The women and Geography study group

If one grants that meanings are constructed through exclusions, one must acknowledge and take responsibility for the exclusions involved in one's own project. (Wallach Scott 1988, 7)

Names can be important, as an identity marker and public persona, especially if they shape our own and others' expectations – ask any woman named Hope or Patience. In this short piece we consider what the Women and Geography Study Group of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) represents to both those inside and outside the group in the 21st century and make a case for change to a more inclusionary title.

Making geography mobile: using location aware technology to improve student performance in physical geography

With the increased availability of new technologies, geography educators are revisiting their pedagogical approaches to teaching and calling for opportunities to share local and international practices which will enhance the learning experience and improve students’ performance. This paper reports on the use of handheld mobile devices, fitted with GPS, by secondary (high) school pupils in geography. Two location-aware activities were completed over one academic year (one per semester) and pre-test and post-test scores for both topics revealed a statistically significant increase in pupils’ performance as measured by the standard national assessments. A learner centred educational approach was adopted with the first mobile learning activity being created by the teacher as an exemplar of effective mobile learning design. Pupils built on their experiences of using mobile learning when they were required to created their own location aware learning task for peer use. An analysis of the qualitative data from the pupils’ journals, group diaries and focus group interviews revealed the five pillars of learner centred education are addressed when using location aware technologies and the use of handheld mobile devices offered greater flexibility and autonomy to the pupils thus altering the level of power and control away from the teacher. Due to the relatively small number of participants in the study, the results are more informative than generalisable however in light of the growing interest in geo-spatial technologies in geography education, this paper offers encouragement and insight into the use of location aware technology in a compulsory school context

Science, Geography of

Interest in the geography of science has increased significantly over the past 20 years to create a highly interdisciplinary field of inquiry. Rejecting the spatial determinism of earlier work, geographers and many others have developed insights from the sociology and philosophy of science and from social and cultural theory to examine the spatiality of science in all of its diversity and complexity. Particular attention has been paid to the sites at which scientific knowledge has been produced, assessed, and consumed and to the transmission of science over physical, cultural, and cognitive terrain.

The Geography of Revolution: The case of Longford, 1917-1921

Why were some areas of the Ireland more active than others during the War of Independence, and why did the areas of most activity change over the course of the war between 1919 and 1921? In the context of the Irish midlands, County Longford stands out as one of the most violent counties surrounded by areas where there was much less activity by the IRA. Even within the county there was a significant difference in the strength of republican activity between north and south Longford. This article will examine the factors that were responsible for the strength of the IRA campaign in this midland enclave, including socio-economic conditions, administrative decisions and failures, and the contemporary political context.
Much of the evidence upon which the paper is based comes from applications made by Longford Volunteers for military service pensions, granted to veterans of the campaign by the Irish government after 1924. Many of these documents are soon to be released by the Irish government. The paper will also include a discussion of these sources and the way in which they can be used by historians to advance our understanding of Ireland’s revolutionary decade.