Risk versus National Pride. Conflicting discourses over the construction of a High Voltage Power Station in the Athens Metropolitan Area for demands of the 2004 Olympics

This paper first explores the conflictual discourses employed by government agencies, citizens’ initiatives, and environmental organizations over the construction of a High Voltage Power Station (KYT) for demands of the 2004 Olympic Games, as presented in media reports and movement literature over a period of one year. Having in mind recent criticisms targeting the lack of empirical evidence in Ulrich Beck’s risk theorization, this exploration is of distinct importance. Secondly, it takes into account that both the defensive character of societal action and mistrust to expert authorities have been confirmed as prevalent characteristics of both the Greek and the general risk social context. The paper attempts to re-evaluate and/or complement existing perspectives of societal activism in general and environmental mobilizations in particular within the confines of the Greek social context. As a tentative conclusion, it is suggested that the risk perspective offers a novel prism for the examination of societal activism without confining it to the characteristics of individual national contexts.

Analysing spatio-temporal change by use of national historical Geographical Information Systems: Population change during and after the Great Irish Famine

Several countries have made large investments in building historical Geographical Information Systems (GIS) databases containing census and other quantitative statistics over long periods of time. Making good use of these databases requires approaches that explore spatial and temporal change.

Education and the 'universalist' idiom of empire: Irish National School Books in Ireland and Ontario

This paper compares the founding of the elementary school systems of Ireland and Ontario in the nineteenth century. The systems shared a common set of textbooks that had originated in Ireland. Using examples from a number of these books, which were part of a series that had been specially prepared for the Irish national school system, founded in 1831, and information from archive sources on policy and administration in both countries, the paper argues that there was a common, ‘universalist’, imperialist ideology being promulgated in both systems. The article focuses on these ‘universalist’ principles rather than undertaking a detailed analysis of the textbooks.