Flagging up sunburn: a printable, multicomponent, UV-indicator that warns of the approach of erythema

A printable, multicomponent, UV-sensitive indicator which provides different coloured, flag-like warnings of the approach to erythema is described.

Belfast beyond violence: Flagging up a challenge to local government?

Northern Ireland is emerging from violence but still living with conflict. The recent flags protests in Belfast represent a challenge to public administration to transcend the contested politics of local government in Northern Ireland and to navigate a way through a symbolic legacy issue. This article draws on a longitudinal hermeneutic analysis of empirical research conducted on Northern Ireland local government over a decade, where these concerns dominated much debate. Additional analysis of the research findings reveals broader problems applicable to any public administration faced with managing situations in which good governance in public participation and procedural correctness operates alongside fundamental political disagreement and distrust. These conclusions are particularly pertinent for local administrations in societies transitioning from conflict.

Ranah minang: the changing conception of a traditional minangkabau homeland

The Minangkabau people of West Sumatra, Indonesia, view the physical world as having two distinct components, Ranah Minang (which is itself further divided) and the rantau. Ranah Minang is the traditional, ancient homeland of the group, while the rantau is everything beyond the boundaries of their ancestral lands. This distinction is institutionalised in the folklore of the group and serves as a characterizing dichotomy in their worldview. Even today, when the outlines of the ancestral home are indistinct and the region has been overlaid with the modern administrative structure of modern Indonesia, the distinction between Ranah Minang and the rantau remains strong in societal perceptions and occurs repeatedly, not just in traditional folklore, but in modern expressions of traditional culture. This paper will describe the spatial division of territory in Minangkabau culture as it exists in the folklore of the group and will discuss the ways in which this traditional perception is manifested in modern society. Further, it will discuss the changing nature of the conception of Ranah Minang with respect to the physical landscape as well as to the institutions and structures of society.

Diasporas in Australia: current and potential links with the homeland

This paper is the outcome a three year Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage project Diasporas in Australia: Current and Potential Links with the Homeland conducted from 2009-2012. The research involved a comparatives study of the Italian, Macedonian, Tongan, and Vietnamese diaspora in Australia. The broad purpose of the project was to consider how the different “type” of diaspora affected the nature and extent of their ties to the Homeland. This was explored from an interdisciplinary perspective into five broad areas: citizenship, identity and langue; personal ties through visits, communication and media use; political and communal involvement and philanthropy; family/kinship, caregiving and remittances; and business and professional ties. These are the levels of analysis within this article which consider the evaluation of diaspora typologies.

Flagging authenticity

How important are national flags in the emerging global society? This is a relevant question for a world still coming to terms with post-colonialism while also having to deal with the economic and cultural side of globalisation. This contribution to The Identity Journal looks at the value of authenticity and its importance in redefining Australia's national identity. The role of Indigenous culture and its relationship to a broad national identity is explored in the context of proposed changes to the Australian constitution. If passed this constitutional amendment will formally recognise Australia as the home of the worlds oldest living cultures. 

Homeland, territory, property: contesting land, state, and nation in urban Timor-Leste

This article considers contestations over land, state and nation in Aitarak Laran, an urban settlement in post-independence Timor-Leste. Since 2010 the settlement has been resisting eviction by the East Timorese state, which wishes to use the land it occupies to build a National Library and Cultural Centre. In exploring the contestation, the purpose of this article is two-fold. Firstly, it explores the nature of social connection to land within postcolonial state- and nation-building. Here, the contestation at Aitarak Laran reveals counter-posed imaginings of land as homeland, territory and property. Secondly, the article draws out the implications of these counter-posed imaginings for thinking about the 'right to the city', a notion first theorised by Lefebvre (1996 [1968]) and subsequently developed to encompass a range of modes of urban protest. In the settlement, the promises of independence-unity, equivalence, and inclusion within the sovereign nation-state-are at odds with residents' experiences of what independence has in fact brought. Land, in its multiple imaginings, becomes a crucible upon which this painful disjuncture plays out. Reading Aitarak Laran as an instance of 'right to the city' struggle, these tensions emerge as well not only in practice but also in theory, reflected particularly in the limitations and ambiguities of rights discourse.