Nicola J. Thomas

Exploring the boundaries of biography: the family and friendship networks of Lady Curzon, Vicereine of India 1898–1905

Abstract This paper presents a biographical analysis of Mary Curzon, Vicereine of India (1898–1905) set within the context of her family and friendship circle. Outlining the archival records that have been used to explore Mary Curzons family and friendship network, this paper discusses the methodological considerations that face biographical researchers, and presents the recent shifts in the method and theory of biography that have opened new avenues for geographers engaged with life writing. This paper argues that by placing the biographical subject within their friendship networks, the specificity of biography can be combined with greater engagement with the wider, social, cultural, economic and political contexts in which subjects lived. Letters formed the most frequent link to ‘home’ for those living in the ‘empire’, links that provided security, but also more practical forms of advice and support. Exploring the ways in which Mary presented her reproductive and ‘bodily ills’ through correspondence to her family and friendship circle, this paper demonstrates that Marys friendship network offered avenues for mutual reassurance and advice. Mary Curzons attempts to control the British and India newspaper press is examined, revealing that she used family and friends to shape representations of her health through the spaces of empire, and also to manipulate newspaper representation of Indian political affairs. This paper argues that biographical approaches offer an important mechanism to combine concerns of the body and the polity when addressing the position of women within the culture of empire.

Regional Imaginaries of Governance Agencies: Practising the Region of South West Britain

Changes in government and governmentality in the UK have resulted in what has been termed a ‘regional renaissance’ over the last decade. This has led to an increase in the number of offices, institutions, and agencies operating with a regional remit that is based upon a notion of fixed territorial containers. One sector that has increasingly been brought into the orbit of the new regional policy framework is that of the creative industries, and research is required in order to understand how creative industry governance agencies imagine and interpret the regional spaces that they administer. Notwithstanding the supposedly agreed-upon and bounded nature of the territories over which they have competence, we find that personnel working within these regional bodies negotiate and imagine regional space in a number of ways. Drawing on empirical work with three creative-industry governance agencies in the South West of Britain, we consider a range of dynamic and sometimes contradictory understandings of regional space as practised through their policy development and implementation. The paper traces how the practice of creative-industry governance challenges the governmentally determined region and, by implication, any territorial unit as a naturally given container that is internally coherent and a discrete space available for governance. Hence, the paper has broader lessons for effective policy delivery more generally.

Firing up craft capital: the renaissance of craft and craft policy in the United Kingdom

Crafts have recently been experiencing a renaissance. This revitalization sees craft increasingly recognised as a growing industrial sector with benefits linked to educational, cultural and economic development policy agendas. This paper engages with policy debates around the place of craft in the United Kingdom from 2010. Drawing on craft sector perspectives and UK government policy initiatives it situates the disciplines and practices of craft within their institutional support networks, organizational contexts and draws attention to the role of individuals in driving agendas. The paper focuses on the national facing crafts development organizations, the UK Crafts Council and the UK Heritage Crafts Association, alongside recent policy discussion emerging from the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. Recognizing that the legacies of past practice often inform contemporary agendas, the paper explores how the advocacy of craft in the recent past has shaped the place and positioning of craft in contemporary UK politics.