Alan Strachan

Soldier Recruitment to the British Army: A Spatial and Social Methodology for Analysis and Monitoring

This article reports on the findings of a study undertaken for the Army Eastern District into applications and recruitment in the county of Essex. The data were for one year, 4 January 1988-3 January 1989, and were taken from the 951 DAR1 forms of young people who applied to join the Army. The data were entered and manipulated using INGRES and SPSS-X and the mapping, based on POSTCODE/Grid Referencing, used the GIMMS 5.1 computer mapping package. The study established the feasibility of creating applications/recruitment databases for monitoring the recruitment process. It also demonstrated the value of social and spatial analysis in gaining an understanding of where applicants and recruits come from and their relationship to the local pool of young people (data available from the National Census). This type of information is essential for the development of management information systems to ensure cost effective targeting of recruitment resources. The report recommends the extension of the methodology in a full-scale study and also highlights the need for a greater understanding of young peoples aspirations and attitudes to both civilian and armed forces jobs.

Return migration and tertiary development: a Calabrian case study

The impact of return migration to Southern Europe is examined using the example of the coastal town of Amantea in Calabria Italy. The authors demonstrate that returning migrants capital and initiative have led to the development of a thriving tourist industry. Problems of this industrys conflicts with agriculture and with the poorest sector of the community are considered. (ANNOTATION)

The urban dimension of European return migration: the case of Bari southern Italy

Amongst a growing literature on intra-European return migration there has been little attention paid to urban settlements. This paper, based on 211 interviews of returned migrants in the south Italian city of Bari, aims to rectify this deficiency. A number of hypotheses concerning the distinctiveness of urban return are put forward and tested using official migration statistics and the questionnaire information, including data from a control sample of 415 rural returnees. As an example of an urban area in an emigration region, Bari is found to experience less emigration and more return migration, than its surrounding rural areas. Its returnees have been to a wider range of destination countries, and for longer periods, than the rural control group. They are also a more diverse group in their employment patterns, both before, during and after migration, and have different attitudes towards migration and return and different priorities and opportunities for the use of migrant savings.

The Irish in Coventry: the Social Geography of a Relict Community

Few studies have been made of the social geography of recent Irish migration and settlement in Britain. This paper presents the results of an exploratory investigation of the evolving character and spatial distribution of the Irish community in Coventry. The Irish-born in Coventry have settled almost exclusively as part of the ‘second wave’ of Irish immigration to Britain, during the period between the 1930s and the 1960s. Census data enable the evolving spatial pattern to be described and some possible explanatory factors behind the changing distribution are discussed. Diocesan and school records arc used to supplement the census data, especially for the period since 1981. The suburbanisation of the Irish-born and the second generation has led to a decline in the Irish character of certain inner city neighbourhoods which have been recently resettled by Asian immigrants. The character of the community depends largely on its institutional expressions in the Catholic church and in various clubs. However, gi...

Bridging the gap between school and college: evidence from the University of Leicester 1978–82

Abstract It has long been recognised that students enter higher education lacking some of the essential elements of geographical knowledge and understanding. In a systematic investigation of these factors, a survey of five years of Leicester University geography freshers shows them to have good factual knowledge, but alarmingly low levels of understanding. It further suggests that A level grade is a poor predictor of performance in higher education and confirms suspicions of grave deficiences in the grasp of quantitative methods. The paper concludes by suggesting ways in which these problems might be tackled without resorting to undesirable repetition in first‐year college and university courses.

National Economic and Social Council, The Economic and Social Implications of Emigration, Dublin, March 1991. 318pp

....we are satisfied that, while the causes of emigration have been many and have varied at different times, emigration has been due to two fundamental causes, the absence of opportunities for making an adequate livelihood, and a growing desire for higher standards of living on the part of the community, particularly the rural community. (Report of the Commission on Emigration and other Population Problems, 1954)

The Sunday market in Scotland: A case study of Ingliston

Abstract The Ingliston market, Edinburgh, was investigated. It was found to have a wide enough range of goods to give it a general retailing appeal, so it attracts between 20,000 and 50,000 people weekly, each party spending on average £13. Earlier findings from England that Sunday markets have also an important recreational function, and that site selection and organisation must be very careful if the impact is to be beneficial, are confirmed.