Social and population history

Summary

In Chapter One we said that there were four inter-related themes running through this book as indicated by its title: mapping, environmental sustainability, systemic practices and participatory research. We explained what we meant by each of these and then in Chapter Two set out in more detail how mapping was a feature of systems thinking and that systems thinking influences how we view environmental sustainability and how we practice our research. That research practice includes working closely with the participants of the situations we are researching and acting within. Chapters Three to Eight then provided different case studies on the use of mapping within their research. These case studies are from people at The Open University who share a common praxis (in that we all collaborate on developing coherent teaching materials on these topics) but are free to undertake their own research in various ‘niches’ relating to the broad field of environmental sustainability. Chapter Nine then took a theoretical perspective on using systems thinking and mapping to help with the evaluation of research projects and programmes.

As well as reflecting on these four themes, we want to add a fifth theme in this final chapter, one that has been implicit throughout the book, that of research methods. This is important since we said in Chapter One that the idea for this book arose out of interest in our use of visual methods in research from doctoral students and research fellows at The Open University and elsewhere. They wanted to know what the benefits of using such participatory visual approaches were, but also the limitations or drawbacks. They were interested in how we had used mapping as a tool or technique as a method for engaging participants, and as a way to frame a methodology. And although the book is particularly relevant to researchers, these same issues around the methods used are also relevant to any practitioner working in complex environmental situations that necessarily involve many different people and perspectives. What follows are our concluding remarks on each of these themes, but what will also be apparent is how each theme is closely tied to the other themes. Hopefully this exposition will help you in developing your own praxis.

Summary

Editors’ introduction

In this chapter we (the editors) draw on our experiences over many years of investigating knowledge exchange processes across three research projects that mostly deal with agri-environmental knowledge systems with contentious issues for stakeholders (farmers, policymakers, researchers, businesses and NGOs) to explore, as was the case in Chapter Three. The first project discussed considers UK farmers’ understandings of new technologies and the influencers on them. We then took this work forward into subsequent projects that analysed complex knowledge flows in a number of different contexts – agriculture, health, food, international development and hedgerow management systems. We reflect upon how our use of diagramming and our relationships with participants in our research methods evolved through the three phases of the first project and into the subsequent projects, as is also the case in Chapters Five and Eight. We discuss not only how we drew on tried and tested mapping techniques – cognitive maps and Harman Fans – but also the mapping techniques we devised specifically for the projects. As well as drawing on theories about participatory approaches to research as described in Chapters One and Two, the projects also particularly drew on theories about communities of practice, explained further in Chapter Seven.

Introduction

As discussed in Chapter One, it is important to not only find out about different people's perspectives when considering solutions to issues concerning environmental sustainability, but also bring together different types of knowledge. However, more than that, it is important to consider how, or indeed whether, knowledge is exchanged between people and then acted upon. The majority of this chapter discusses an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded project that used an increasingly more interactive approach, and mapping techniques, to research with farmers. We were interested in not simply their understandings of genetically modified (GM) crops and new technologies more generally, but also how these understandings came about. That is, who influenced their decision making process, in what way and how knowledge exchange might be improved. We discuss the mapping techniques we used and devised. We then consider two subsequent projects that worked with conference participants (academics and practitioners) to look further at knowledge flows and which developed mapping methods for capturing knowledge exchange.

Summary

Editors’ introduction

Working towards sustainable agriculture often involves working on contested or controversial issues with others. They involve a complex mix of people, all with their own opinions and ways of seeing the world, such as civil society organisations, policymakers and companies. All the agri-environmental projects (those concerned with the environment but carried out in agricultural contexts) discussed in this chapter involve controversial issues, such as the introduction and development of GM crops, the potential power of large biotechnology companies, the increased use of biofuels, water and intensification of agriculture. As with the next chapter (Chapter Four), this chapter discusses the use and value of mapping techniques in these highly contested environmental research contexts. However, unlike Chapter Four the projects drawn on here were all large scale, multi-partner, European projects. The processes and mapping techniques were chosen for specific purposes, according to the needs of the different projects, the context and type of participants involved and their strategic aims. They also represent the development of the authors’ approaches to engaging with people and demonstrate the way that the approach has changed over time as they have sought ways to enable participants to engage in the research process more fully. Thus while the final project discussed in this chapter is less about mapping, it is included because its unusual funding arrangements enabled a different mode of research participation that provided useful insights for the more action-oriented research we advocate in this book.

Introduction

Several of the mapping techniques presented in this book have evolved from their use in business and organisational knowledge management (for example, Eden, 1988; Huff, 1990), as have the theories from which they draw, such as communities of practice (Lave and Wenger, 1991), networks of practice (Brown and Duguid, 2001) and tacit versus explicit knowledge (Collins, 2010; Polyani, 2015 [1958]), discussed in more detail in Chapters Four and Seven. These techniques and theories are concerned with how informal or tacit knowledge is generated and managed in organisations and have been used by consultants and practitioners as well as academics to link theory and practice (see for example, Huff and Jenkins, 2002). The mapping techniques used by the projects in this chapter were, likewise, originally devised by people who were paid to help companies clarify their strategic options.

This is the first systematic study of famine in all parts of Europe from the Middle Ages until the present. In case studies ranging from Scandinavia and Italy to Ireland and Russia, leading scholars compare the characteristics, consequences and causes of famine. The famines they describe differ greatly in size, duration and context; in many cases the damage wrought by poor harvests was confounded by war. The roles of human action, malfunctioning markets and poor relief are a recurring theme. The chapters also take full account of demographic, institutional, economic, social and cultural aspects, providing a wealth of new information which is organized and analyzed within a comparative framework. Famine in European History represents a significant new contribution to demographic history, and will be of interest to all those who want to discover more about famines - truly horrific events which, for centuries, have been a recurring curse for the Europeans.

Summary

The Summer …

This time period was characterised by the accelerating development of neo-liberal capitalism: the unfettering of restraints on big business, through laissez-faire policies, privatisation and deregulation. This policy was developed and carried out by Ronald Reagan, President of the United States from 1980 to1988, and Margaret Thatcher, British prime minister from 1979 to 1990.

On the surface, the yachting scene of the 1980s and 1990s appeared healthy. Marinas were full. A small number of companies gained control of most of the marinas, the industry leader being Marina Development Limited (MDL), with eighteen marinas in the UK. Prices were increased regularly. The pricing was such that only those in good jobs could afford their berths, but there were enough people willing and able to pay marina prices to keep them full.

Yachtspeople benefited, as competition was now international. They could get more boat for their money by buying French made boats. Jeanneau introduced the Sun-Fizz, a 44 foot Cruiser, in the early 1980s and Dufour introduced their Gib'Sea range in the mid-1980s, with aggressive marketing and promotion in the UK. Another successful French range was the Feelings, made by Kirie of Les Sables D'Olonne (later taken over by Kelt Yachts), coming onto the market in 1980. Beneteau, with its factory line production of Firsts, became the market leader.

Internet shopping was coming online by the end of the 1980s, obviating the need to be overcharged by the local monopoly chandler. With the deregulation of industry, the first years of neo-liberal capitalism seemed liberating. People talked of the age being ‘ironic’, ‘fragmenting into minority interests’ and tolerant of experimentation in the arts and in gender behaviour. This chapter shows that yachting reflected this diversity and diversification.

The Second Generation of Women Racers

There were international races around the world, such as the three-yearly, crewed Whitbread, which started in 1973, and which Volvo took over in 2001, and the brutal, single-handed, non-stop Vendée Globe. The Vendée, founded by Philippe Jeantot, was first raced in 1989 and then four-yearly from 1992.

With the much greater range of lighter materials, a new generation of successful women sailors emerged. Whereas the previous generation of women racers could not compete with the men's physical strength, this new generation could. The outstanding example was Ellen MacArthur.

Summary

Billy Connolly, in his funeral oration for the shipbuilders’ union leader, Jimmy Reid, on 20 August, 2010, described walking through Govan, Glasgow, with him. Connolly recalled Reid's words:

You look at these housing estates, and these high rise flats. Look at all these windows, he says, and behind every one of those windows, there's somebody who might be a horse-jumping champion, a Formula One racing champion, a yachtsman of great degree, but you'll never know because he'll never step on a yacht or in a Formula One car, or that. He'll never get the chance.

In this chapter, I bring the narrative of British yachting into the present and look at pointers towards its future. While I am confident of the trends I suggest, I can be less precise about timing, and recognise that there will be some regional, and even local, variations.

The 2008 Banking Crisis and financial crash were caused by reckless mortgage lending and other risky financial behaviours by British bankers. The taxpayers had to lend (give?) billions of pounds to the banks to bail them out, resulting in the longest economic slump in modern British history.

The grounds for such an event had been created from the 1980s onwards, as successive governments believed that the economy could only flourish if they gave the multinationals all they demanded in terms of a docile workforce. This required that they provided a cheap workforce, and a fearful one, by removing the financial and legal safety nets for anyone who was not working – mothers who believe that bringing their children up is a full-time job, the poor, the ill, the old.

The impact of political or social issues on yachting is not discussed in the yachting press. There are three large-selling magazines in the United Kingdom: Practical Boat Owner, catering for the smaller boat sailor who wishes to undertake his own maintenance; Yachting Monthly, aimed at the cruising, middle-size, yacht owner; and Yachting World, concerned with yacht racing and super yachts. All are owned by the same company, IPC (International Publishing Corporation, now part of Time Inc. UK), and editorial staff move freely between them. Given this near monopoly situation, there is a lack of alternative views or vision.

Summary

… on one occasion when asked the Princes of Wales’ whereabouts, the Kaiser replied that his cousin was sailing with his grocer, a reference to Sir Thomas Lipton. The Prince is rumoured to have shown his feeling about this remark by kicking a silver cup he had just won, which had been presented by the Kaiser, off the side of his boat.

During the last twenty years of the nineteenth century, yachting achieved a higher level of social and cultural – and even, to a limited extent, political – centrality than before or since. The next two chapters concern this centrality and examine it in six different areas:

Summary

There are at the moment a score of Yacht Clubs in the United Kingdom, containing altogether about five thousand subscribing members … A national sport … ought certainly to have a Magazine, to register the regattas, cruises, crotchets, inventions, deeds, discussions, and opinion of its supporters.

The Lack of Political and Social Stability Needed for Yachting to Develop

The growth of yachting and yacht clubs in Great Britain was rather laboured after 1815 until the 1860s. To understand the reasons for this slow growth, we need to try to specify the conditions necessary for a yachting community to develop.

The Conditions Necessary for a Yachting Community To Develop

Summary

Mr Herbert Weld, who was elected to the Squadron in 1924, owned the Big Class cutter Lulworth which he raced very successfully. Or to be more accurate, his crew raced very successfully … The papers were always delivered to Lulworth about half an hour before the race was due to start. Weld would then go below with a copy of The Times tucked under his arm and would not reappear until the race was well under way. ‘Hullo!’ he would say, casually looking round him. ‘We've started’.

Cowes Becomes Yachting's Capital – the Squadron's Early Years

We left an informal grouping of yacht-owning aristocrats at the end of the last chapter who had agreed to meet twice a year, once in London and once in Cowes. Two questions merit answering. Firstly, why meet at Cowes, and, secondly, how did this informal group become the most prestigious yacht club in the United Kingdom, if not the world? In the final section, I will examine the America's Cup, first raced for in 1851, and its subsequent history.

I described in Chapter 3 how, during the second half of the eighteenth century, inland spa towns had gradually lost favour to seaside resorts, as doctors began lauding the merits of seawater, seawater bathing and sea air. Besides, inland resorts were becoming ‘invaded’ by members of the ‘lower classes’, seeking to join in the promenades, the dances and the meetings. Royalty and the Aristocracy moved their socialising away from the inland spas to coastal spas.

Already, before the turn of the century, grand properties were being built along the Solent Coast around Cowes and along the Medina River. The swelling of its summer population was reported on by the Hampshire Courier and the Hampshire Telegraph, ‘two papers which may be regarded as the archives for the first period of English yachting, of the fine company which gave an increasing prosperity to Cowes before the nineteenth century had run into its teens’.

Travel to the Island was improved by the introduction of the paddle steamer, Prince Cobourgh, on the Southampton–Cowes run from 1820.

Summary

Dating the beginning of the sailing narrative is inherently problematic since people have sailed for pleasure since there were boats to sail, so a fisherman, the captain of a commercial vessel, or a harbour pilot might well sail for pleasure on high days or holidays, and they had no reason to record their experiences in a permanent form.

Leisure use of yachts is recorded from ancient times. W. M. Nixon goes back to 600 BC and the Roman poet Catullus, ‘proud owner of a 30ft seagoing yacht, planked in pitch-pine on oak frames … with a somewhat cumbersome lug-sail’, he sailed from his home water of the Adriatic to Greek ports, and ‘on his most ambitious cruise, of all, the Black Sea’.

An early example of the use of yachts for royal leisure is shown by Harold, king of Norway, presenting a ‘king's ship’ to the English king, Athelstan (924–939); and King Edgar (944–975) enjoyed ‘sommer progreses and [his] yerely chiefe pastimes were the sailing round about this whole isle of Albion’. ‘When King Robert Bruce of Scotland lived in his castle at Cardross near Dumbarton “his chief amusement was to go upon the river [Clyde] and down to the sea in a ship which he kept for his pleasure. In 1326 six men were paid 2s for crossing in his yacht to Arran.”’

Brian Lavery in The Island Nation tells how ‘A fifteenth century manuscript in the British Library shows three people in a small boat partly covered with an awning, playing musical instruments and drinking from a jar’. I point out the continuous association of sailing and drinking at various points in this book; and also the link with music, and often singing, especially after ‘a few jars’, as seems to have been the case on this occasion.

Representations of the Sea

We need to pay attention to the various ‘meanings’ of the sea, since these inform leisure sailing and define the various types of pleasure and purpose to be gained from it.

Summary

The love of boating is inherent, more or less, in the heart of every British boy, the more so if brought up within the sight of salt water

… careful papas and anxious mamas would do well to throw no obstacle in the way if master Harry or Tom show any predilection for yachting.

As yachting became increasingly popular among the members of the rapidly expanding middle class with surplus income to spend on leisure, so the composition and structure of yachting and yacht clubs changed, and the Corinthian style of yachting grew. The key factors in this growth were political stability and the creation of a railway network linking the cities to the coast.

Regarding political stability, the working class moved away from radicalism towards cooperation, friendly societies and trade unionism. Abroad, the Navy was establishing a Pax Britannica that lasted from the Crimean War (1853–1856) to the First World War.

With the advent of the railways, ‘the countryside seemed to shrink perceptibly, as the iron rails swiftly formed connections between the cities, linking town and country, city and coast, and bringing together the far extremities of the land’.

Who Were the New Participants in Yachting?

As Ryan has pointed out, yachting expands as the middle class expands, and it was expanding fast. We can distinguish three overlapping but distinct groups.

Firstly, there were those involved in manufacturing or the production of raw materials, such as coal. It was among these new industrialists, the manufacturers and their managers, that new yachtsmen were recruited; and if not from them, because they were too concerned and too anxious about maintaining their new found status and wealth, from their sons.

These men were, very predominantly, based in and around the cities, created by the Industrial Revolution. In the second half of the nineteenth century, Manchester, Salford (the location of Engels’ The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844), Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Newcastle, Hull, Bristol and Glasgow all doubled or trebled their population. New cities grew from towns, created because they were suitable for a particular product or process like Leicester (engineering, joinery, traditional hosiery), Stokeon- Trent (pottery), Cardiff (coal export), Middlesborough and Barrow-in- Furness (ironworks), and Crewe and Swindon (railways).

Summary

The Golden Age of Yachting was not confined to the rich. There was a much larger group, which took up the new sport of dinghy sailing, among whom were a significant number of women sailors.

Lubbock's Bank Holiday Act, 1870, and the release of Saturday afternoons from work, allowed aquatic leisure activities to spread to the lower middle classes during and after the 1870s; and ‘by the turn of the century even the poor came to assume that they had a right to leisure’.

Cruising, in whatever size boat, has always been much more popular than racing. In the San Francisco Call, 22 May, 1904, there is an article on ‘Ladies of High Station Who Love the Sea’. It starts by telling the reader that good women sailors are far more frequent among ‘British sisters’ than among American women. Three outstanding helmswomen are mentioned, but over twenty who enjoy cruising (these being high class ladies, they have crew).

Unfortunately for the historian, it is hard to get a handle on yacht cruising. The tens of thousands who packed a hamper and sailed with friends and/ or family a couple of miles down the river to their favourite picnic spot are unrecorded, and since they had no reason to join a yacht club, even assuming they would have been acceptable, there is even less record of their existence.

To cater for the needs of the cruising man, E. F. Knight, along with Claud Worth and his regular crewman, H. J. Hanson, created the Cruising Association in 1908, to counter the snobbishness and exclusiveness of the Royal Cruising Club. The Association, whose purpose was and is to offer support to the cruising yachtsman created a network of Boatmen, carefully selected and supervised by the Honorary Local Representative, who would go off to meet any incoming vessel flying the Association burgee.

On the Clyde, the Clyde Cruising Club was formed on a November night in 1909, when four young men, standing on the starboard paddle box of the Duchess of Montrose heading for Wemyss Bay (on the mainland) from Rothesay (the Isle of Bute, and a major yachting haven) agreed to set up a club for the cruising man.

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Contents

List of figures, tables and boxes

Ten - Conclusions

Summary

Four - Mapping agri-environmental knowledge systems

Summary

Three - Researching agri-environmental problems with others

Summary

Famine in European History

15 - The Summer before the Dark: Yachting in Post-Modern Times, 1990–2007

Summary

16 - After the Crash

Summary

Frontmatter

Conversion of Imperial to Metric Measures

10 - The Golden Age of Yachting, 1880–1900 Part One: The Rich

Summary

6 - The Slow Expansion of Yachting in Britain, 1815–1870

Summary

Acknowledgements

5 - The Landed Gentry Take Up Yachting

Summary

1 - Stirrings and Beginnings

Summary

8 - The Enthusiastic Adoption of Yachting by the Mercantile and Professional Classes after 1870 Part One: The New Men

Summary

List of Illustrations

11 - The Golden Age of Yachting, 1880–1900 Part Two: Small Boats and Women Sailors

Summary

Index

Bibliography

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Famine in European History

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