The creative countryside: Policy and practice in the UK rural cultural economy

This paper explores emerging policymaking and research into rural creative industries, drawing on a case study from the county of Shropshire in the UK. It begins with a critique of existing creative industries policy, which is argued to focus almost exclusively on the urban as the site of creative work. The paper highlights an emerging body of critique of this neglect of the rural in cultural policy, which is matched by a neglect of the cultural in rural policy. Attention then turns to an investigation of the size, scope and characteristics of the creative sector in Shropshire, with findings based on a consultancy report commissioned by public sector actors keen to highlight and promote the county's creative work. This material is used to illustrate some of the distinctive issues facing the UK rural creative sector, which current policy is ill-equipped to address. The paper ends by reflecting these findings back to the broader academic and policy contexts.     

Doreen Massey

The growth of transnational communications, most notably the Internet and email, has had a profound impact on social and political interactions across borders. Doreen Massey, a social and political geographer, has written widely about space, with an emphasis on examining relations between actors, rather than the roles that they play. Her research suggests that space can be conceived of as constructed of these relations and, as a consequence, power can be seen to operate at multiple and complex levels. This article examines Massey's work, identifying areas of particular relevance to communications scholars. Massey's thinking is applied to the contemporary communications arena, where her ideas on space and 'power-geometries' offer new insights into how the complexities of transnational relations can be understood.     

When fat meets disability in poverty porn: exploring the cultural mechanisms of suspicion in Too Fat to Work

There has been a distinct neglect of dis/ability in socio-cultural analysis of poverty porn. This paper applies framing analysis to reality TV documentaries that feature larger bodied, disabled, welfare claimants to examine how cultural literacies of fatness and ‘obesity’ are drawn upon to cast suspicion upon disability welfare claimants in so-called poverty-porn. With a focus on Channel 5's Benefit Britain series, Benefiits Too Fat to Work we demonstrate that enduring and harmful representations of ‘obesity’ are put to the work of securing public consent for a post-welfare society in the UK.     

Freud,Grafenberg, and the neglected vagina: Thoughts concerning an historical omission in sexology

Because similarity between partners has been thought to be related to relationship quality, this study assessed similarities between partners in 44 married, 35 heterosexual cohabiting, 50 gay, and 56 lesbian couples on demographic characteristics, appraisals of relationship quality, and factors predictive of relationship quality. With regard to demographic characteristics: Partners' age was correlated for each type of couple; partners' income, education, and job prestige were correlated only for heterosexual cohabiting couples; and gay partners had the largest discrepancies in age, income, and education. With regard to appraisals of relationship quality: Partners' scores were correlated for each type of couple on relationship satisfaction but for only gay and lesbian couples on love for partner; partners across all couples differed in their assessments of relationship quality. With regard to the predictors of relationship quality: Partner scores were correlated for each type of couple only on shared decision making; these predictor scores were most frequently correlated for lesbian partners; differences between partners were least for lesbian couples on attractions to the relationship and perceived family support and greatest for cohabiting couples on dyadic attachment. Relationship quality was not related to discrepancies between partners' demographic variables but was negatively related to discrepancies in partners' dyadic attachment. In conclusion, partner homogamy was most pervasive in lesbian couples, and for all couples homogamy on dyadic attachment was related to relationship quality.