Return Journeys Research Articles

‘A Return, a Mirror, a Photograph’: Return Journeys, Material Culture and Intergenerational Transmission in a Greek Cypriot Refugee Family

During times of war, displaced families carry various material items that later serve as means for preserving the memories of lost homes and maintaining a sense of identity. In divided Cyprus, the use of material objects by people displaced before and during the 1974 Turkish invasion has been influenced by the opening of checkpoints between the two sides in 2003. This paper explores how different generations in my family reacted to and interpreted the rediscovery of a lost material item—a handmade mirror piece—during the return journey. It discusses how my mother located the item, photographed it, and placed its photograph in the family’s photographic archive. During the research project upon which this paper follows from, both items re-emerged through my mother’s storytelling about her experience of return, transforming the project into a form of intergenerational transmission. The paper portrays how the storytelling about the mirror piece and its photograph was interpreted differently by me and my mother, influenced by the different politics of memory. The paper also showcases the resourcefulness of refugee families in maintaining the memory of their lost homes, which simultaneously reveals their views and hopes regarding the political future of the island.

Academics' mobility in the agglomeration of Constantine: A transports post-use evaluation

The purpose of this study is to closely examine and analyze the increasing phenomenon of academics? urban mobility among students and teachers in the Constantine agglomeration through the examination of their movements. The employed methodology incorporates diverse qualitative research methods, such as covert participant observation, acquiring documentary and statistical data, establishing a research basis on the context, and post-use evaluation through an e-questionnaire survey. The analysis was conducted using tools such as GIS and SPSS. The evaluation utilized distinct criteria, such as origin-destination patterns, modal utilization, travel expenses, and frequency, travel timetables, commuting duration, and disparities between outbound and return journeys. The findings indicate that the commuting circuits of academics are mainly deployed in high-traffic circulation routes. The focus is on intermodality, which entails utilizing transportation modes other than personal vehicles and university buses, primarily due to the presence of a tramway line connecting the Constantine universities. The bus and taxi are frequently employed as the principal means along the tramway. The transport method, its cost, and the frequency of movement are significantly correlated. The travel schedules include peak periods in the morning and evening, and commute time is influenced by factors such as choice of transport mode, accessibility, and traffic congestion. The transport system in the Constantine agglomeration witnesses substantial usage during the academic period.

The balbyter ant Camponotus fulvopilosus combines several navigational strategies to support homing when foraging in the close vicinity of its nest.

Many insects rely on path integration to define direct routes back to their nests. When shuttling hundreds of meters back and forth between a profitable foraging site and a nest, navigational errors accumulate unavoidably in this compass- and odometer-based system. In familiar terrain, terrestrial landmarks can be used to compensate for these errors and safely guide the insect back to its nest with pin-point precision. In this study, we investigated the homing strategies employed by Camponotus fulvopilosus ants when repeatedly foraging no more than 1.25 m away from their nest. Our results reveal that the return journeys of the ants, even when setting out from a feeder from which the ants could easily get home using landmark information alone, are initially guided by path integration. After a short run in the direction given by the home vector, the ants then switched strategies and started to steer according to the landmarks surrounding their nest. We conclude that even when foraging in the close vicinity of its nest, an ant still benefits from its path-integrated vector to direct the start of its return journey.

No place like home? The International Organization for Migration and the new political imaginary of deportation

ABSTRACT Programmes to encourage the return of migrants living with irregular status are prominent in many OECD countries. Bearing titles like ‘assisted voluntary return and reintegration’ (AVRR), they are often rationalized as a more humane alternative to forced deportation. Critics question their voluntariness, suggesting they are actually an extension of the deportation apparatus. While broadly sympathetic to these criticisms, this paper offers a novel perspective on AVRR. We argue AVRR is reshaping what we call the political imaginary of deportation. Focusing on the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a leading architect of AVRR, we insist scholars take seriously the visual images and narratives through which voluntary return is discursively constructed. First, we discuss the political imaginary, and clarify what this concept brings to deportation studies. Second, we present a mapping of the political imaginary of deportation as this appears within IOM information campaigns concerning AVRR. We organize this material i­n terms of three analytics: returnees as activists, return journeys as homecoming, and deportation as self-reinvention. In the eyes of many activists and migrants, deportation has very negative and painful connotations. We show that IOM reimagines the landscape of deportation in a positive light. We call this move the deportation twist.

Sigmoid colon obstruction due to Kaposiform Haemangioendothelioma

Kaposiform Haemangioendothelioma (KHE) is a very rare, benign but locally aggressive vascular tumour. Its incidence is 1/100000, and it is most commonly found in the cutaneous tissues of the extremities. A 6-month-old presented acutely after 2 days of increasing abdominal distension. Apart from distension, clinical examination was unremarkable. An abdominal x-ray demonstrated massive gaseous distension of bowel loops. A contrast enema demonstrated an irregular stenosis within the sigmoid colon. An urgent laparotomy was performed. A thick and very inflammatory stricture was resected. Histopathology confirmed this as Kaposiform Haemangioendothelioma with margin involvement. Patient had a complicated post-operative period due to prolonged sepsis resulting in a cardiac arrest and two return journeys to theatre. An MRI brain was performed after patient stabilisation, demonstrating bilateral cerebral infarcts – the patient went on to develop cerebral palsy. Mainstay management of KHE is primary resection. It is associated with Kasabach-Merritt Phenomenon – a consumptive coagulopathy, which is present in 70% of KHE patients and has an associated 10% mortality rate. There are a small number of cases of KHE with gastrointestinal involvement in the literature. A number of these presented with bowel obstruction but no other had such a complicated post-operative course.

Travel burnout: Exploring the return journeys of pilgrim-tourists amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study investigates the timely, yet academically unexplored, topic of travel burnout. The study explores the return journeys of pilgrim-tourists from Iran to Pakistan during COVID-19 pandemic and contextualizes travel burnout as a negative emotional state placed in the existing theoretical streams. The conservation of resources theory (Hobfoll, 1989; 2004) provided theoretical support to guide current study's research agenda. On the basis of a qualitative grounded theory research design, 47 in-depth interviews of pilgrim-tourists were conducted. Travel burnout emerged as a multidimensional concept comprising 3 core dimensions, i.e., low tourist self-efficacy, travel exhaustion and emotional maladaptation. Travel burnout anchors emerged as those factors that facilitated preservation of the tourists' resources when travel circumstances became beyond their regulation. The results pave the way for a more theoretically sound conceptualization of travel burnout. For destination marketing organizations, various avenues are identified that need attention to alleviate the tourist concerns that lead to burnout.

On His Netherlands Majesty’s Service: The Remarkable Journeys of the Dutch Corvette-of-war Pollux in the Indies/Indonesia and Around the World, 1824-1838

Alfred de Vigny’s Servitude et Grandeur Militaires (1835) could be the leitmotif for this article which describes the highs and lows of the fourteen-year history of the corvette-of-war Pollux (1824-38) as it experienced the vicissitudes of the Dutch colonial wars in the Indies/Indonesia. Launched in Rotterdam in March 1824, the corvette immediately achieved fame with its round-the-world voyage via South America, Cape Horn, and the Marquesas in the company of the frigate Maria Reigersbergen, during which it discovered a new islet in the Pacific Ocean. But its arrival in Java in late August 1825 plunged it into the turmoil of the Java War (1825-30). After serving as a troop transport, patrol vessel and floating prison, its high point came in the immediate aftermath of the war when it was chosen to transport the Java War leader, Prince Diponegoro, into exile in Manado (3 May-12 June 1830). On two occasions in 1827 and 1832, its return journeys to the Netherlands brought it close to disaster: the first when a storm east of Cape Agulhas (South Africa) destroyed its navigational equipment and foresail and the last when scurvy wiped out a third of the ship’s crew including its long-serving captain and first officer. Ending its days as a guard vessel on the Scheldt, its brief fourteen years of service gave it a ring side seat to the birth of the Netherlands Indies state (1816-1942) and the suffering of its Javanese and Minangkabau opponents. In the interstices of this history there are insights into the savage punishments meted out to the crews of Dutch men-of-war, Diponegoro’s reaction to these, the strikingly unhealthy shipboard conditions which convinced the prince to eschew Dutch doctors, and the culture of fine wine drinking amongst the ship’s officers in which the prince also participated.

Walking in mud: Remarkable Pleistocene human trackways from White Sands National Park (New Mexico)

Human tracks at White Sands National Park record more than one and a half kilometres of an out- and-return journey and form the longest Late Pleistocene-age double human trackway in the world. An adolescent or small adult female made two trips separated by at least several hours, carrying a young child in at least one direction. Despite giant ground sloth and Columbian Mammoth transecting them between the outbound and return journeys, the human tracks show no changes indicative of predator/prey awareness. In contrast, the giant ground sloth tracks show behaviour consistent with human predator awareness, while mammoth tracks show no such apparent concern. The human footprints are morphologically variable and exhibit left-right asymmetry, which might be due to child carrying. We explore this morphological variability using methods based on the analysis of objective track outlines, which add to the analytical toolkit available for use at other human footprint sites. The sheer number of tracks and their remarkable morphological variability have implications for the reliability of inferences made using much smaller samples as are more common at typical footprint sites. One conclusion is that the number of footprints required to make reliable biometric inferences is greater than often assumed.

Journeys to Knua: displacement, return and translocality in Timor-Leste

ABSTRACT Return journeys to ancestral lands are a central dimension that underscores contemporary ideas of origin, identity, kinship, custom, health and prosperity for the East Timorese. The material and social reproduction of knua – both in the sense of the ancestral territory and associated kin-based ritual community – is heavily reliant on ongoing place-based and translocal customary reciprocal exchanges. Based on multi-sited fieldwork, this article examines the return journeys to Lesuai, an ancestral settlement in the remote central southern highlands of Timor-Leste, which was abandoned during the Indonesian invasion and restored in the later years of occupation. Lesuai community believes the spirit realm exerts an overwhelming influence over their general well-being, compelling ‘house’ members to renew their connection with knua to maintain family ties and benefit from ancestral protection. Closer ethnographic attention reveals how the motivations, experiences and understandings of ‘return’ to origin places are highly personal, gendered and generational. Broadly, these return mobilities demonstrate the agency, adaptability and resilience of conflict-affected populations. Through prolonged displacement and resettlement, dispersed knua members have created new livelihoods, subjectivities and attachments across multiple places, which are reconfiguring family ties, connections to ancestral places, and how ritual obligations are fulfilled.

Teaching Biblical Studies in a Pandemic: India

Teaching Biblical Studies in a Pandemic: India Monica Jyotsna Melanchthon and Mothy Varkey The people of democratic India were given only four hours’ notice before lockdown measures took effect on 24 March 2020. Despite the fact that the decision was made by the central government without sufficient preparation and without consulting state governments, India was initially praised for its forcefulness and for the methodical manner in which it closed educational institutions; borders, both international and domestic; sporting events; and the film industry. The measures were strict, and the numbers of those infected with COVID-19 were low relative to the 1.38 billion plus people for whom India is home. The Indian people were delighted and gratified that they had such an efficient government that sought to stem the spread of the virus. India scored the highest rating of 100 for its lockdown measures, according to a “stringency index” framed by researchers at Oxford University.1 As of 23 August there were over 3,105,185 confirmed cases with 57,692 dead.2 With India ranking third after the United States and Brazil, these numbers are exposing the weaknesses in the lockdown measures and their implementation. The very quick and abrupt measures came with several “blindspots,” putting at risk the lives of the millions in India who are impoverished and vulnerable. Women, children, and the Dalits who make up a large percentage of the poor have been absent from the government’s COVID-19 policy. The crisis has accentuated and [End Page 613] unmasked the divided and fragmented India, the disparity between peoples, the discriminatory and oppressive hierarchical system of castes,3 and all the prevalent structures of class that “serve the interests of neoliberal capitalist powers, religious supremacists, and social and economic elites.”4 The caste system “aided by the virus has valorized the idea of segregation”5 of the poor and Dalits, whose “untouchability” stretches far beyond the present demands of social distancing and cleanness. The crisis has highlighted among several other issues the cracks in the health-care system, a shortage of testing facilities and health professionals, and overworked crematoriums. This situation has enabled a drastic increase in “intimate partner violence” (IPV, otherwise termed “intimate terrorism”)6 and has impacted close to forty million internal migrant workers,7 whose labor is the engine that drives many businesses and also middle-and upper-class households in the form of domestic help. The lockdown measures have left these workers, a majority of whom live hand-to-mouth, without an income or a bed, as factories and construction sites have closed. The loss of employment and forceful social distancing triggered a chaotic and painful process of mass return for internal migrants in India, contributing further to the spread of the epidemic. The return journeys of these thousands of workers have been likened to the biblical exodus, but without the miracles experienced by the Hebrews.8 The stories [End Page 614] of these migrants might also bring to mind the parable of the workers in the vineyard (Matt 20:1–16), in which fragile workers are hired daily and not on long-term arrangements. They are an “expendable” labor force for the urban elite, much as we see in India. Yet the landowner seems to be lauded for his generosity in this parable, and the recorded complaint of the workers remains locked in the economic system. The “kingdom of heaven” is apparently linked more to an arbitrary exercise of power than to a “portal on the future.”9 In short, critical studies of the Bible are essential. Relating biblical materials to the diverse social, religious, and economic realities in India is difficult, but socially conscious Indian biblical interpreters affirm the potential of the Bible to facilitate the liberation of marginalized communities— at least, if biblical studies can be practiced as subversive and intersectional rejoinders to specific contexts of practical action. The hermeneutical principles to be used at any given time would have to be evaluated according to the extent to which they promote “basic values such as the freedom of religion, human rights, the reduction of violence as a means of social control, and the cultivation of covenantal senses of vocational...

Esaias Boursse’s ‘Tijkenboeck’

We do not know who trained Esaias Boursse (1631-1672) to be a painter, but we do know that he became a member of the Amsterdam Guild of St Luke around 1651. He certainly did not have a successful career because he joined the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in 1661. He travelled to Colombo, the capital of the island of Ceylon (Sri Lanka since 1972), captured six years earlier by the Portuguese, by way of Batavia (now Jakarta). In 1663 he was back in Amsterdam – remarkable, as the standard contract with the VOC was for five years. In financial straits again, he re-joined the VOC in 1671 and left for Asia. Shortly after leaving he died at sea. In 1996 an album containing 116 drawings came to light, most of them made by Boursse during his time in Ceylon; he made only a small number during his outward or return journeys to the Cape of Good Hope. The drawings are completely different from his earlier known oeuvre of genre paintings and prints with religious themes. The pages in his ‘Tijkenboeck’ provide a unique picture of what Boursse saw in and around Colombo. They are important evidence of the early days of the VOC in its conquered colony of Ceylon.

Repeated long-range migrations of adult males in a common Indo-Pacific reef shark

The grey reef shark, Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos, is one of the most abundant coral reef sharks throughout the Indo-Pacific. However, this species has been critically impacted across its range, with well-documented population declines of > 90% attributed to human activities. A key knowledge gap in the successful implementation of grey reef shark conservation plans is the understanding of large-scale movement patterns, along with the associated biological and ecological drivers. To address this shortfall, we acoustically monitored 147 adult and juvenile grey reef sharks of all sexes for more than 2 yr across the New Caledonian archipelago, West Pacific. Here, we document multiple adult males undertaking return journeys of up to nearly 700 km in consecutive years. This constitutes the first evidence of repeated long-range migrations for this species. Although only a limited number of adult males were definitively tracked undertaking migrations, similar timing in changes in the detection patterns of a further 13 animals, mostly adult males, suggests this behavior may be more common than previously thought. The paucity of evidence for juvenile migrations and timing of adult movements suggest that mating is the motivation behind these migrations. Our results have important implications for management, given the potential of mature individuals to recurrently travel outside managed or protected areas. Future management of this species clearly needs to consider the importance of large-scale migratory behaviors when developing management plans.

An experimental contingent valuation of users’ attitudes towards a Crowd Management System

Smart city projects are being launched globally to enhance the well-being of citizens. Meanwhile, the value-added of the projects is not easy to evaluate due to the non-market nature of the public services provided. This study intends to investigate the attitudes of potential users of a Crowd Management System (CMS) to help with the decision-making on smart city projects. The CMS studied in this paper is applied in large-scale events to enable safe and efficient dissipation of event participants as one of the pilot Smart City projects in Hong Kong. It does so by providing real-time information on public transport for their return journeys when a large number of participants all finish their activities within a short time span. Reducing injuries of pedestrians can be achieved in major gatherings to improve safety. This paper presents an experimental analysis of users’ attitudes towards the CMS with the Contingent Valuation (CV) method. A marathon event in Hong Kong was chosen for an on-the-spot survey of actual users as part of an experimental study. Subsequently a similar survey was carried out off-site among marathon runners not participating in that event (as a control group) for data reliability comparison. The Willingness-to-Pay value is also derived from the pooled samples to evaluate users’ attitudes. Besides, the results indicate that runners’ perceived usefulness and online payment habit significantly influence the stated Willingness-to-Pay (WTP) for the CMS in question.

Revisiting the Right to Know: The Transnational Adoptee and the Moral Economy of ‘Return’

ABSTRACTIn this article I examine regulatory regimes of mobility through the case of transnational adoption. In particular, I focus on ‘return’ journeys by adoptees and their entanglement the ‘right to know’. Backed up by international law, the right to know in the adoption context includes the right to know one’s biological parents, one’s birth culture, and the right to information (for instance, medical information). At large, the ‘right to know’ signals a valuation of openness. But what are the problems that come with knowledge and information? What does the imperative of openness do to kinship relations? Looking at a number of instances where institutions discuss the necessities and implications of return journeys, I demonstrate in this article that ‘the right to know’ is inextricably linked to moral economies of kinship. Returns make visible the transaction of adoption and the exchangeability of the adoptee body. I discuss how adoptees are implicated in this moral economy but also how they, as subjects, negotiate, destabilise, or refuse openness as imperative. I argue that in the end, while the ‘right to know’ allows the discovery of relations, it also fails to acknowledge the invention of relations.

Eleven Travels Abroad of the Holy Crown of Hungary (1205–1978)

The study aims to pay off one of the major debts of Hungarian historiography, the absences on foreign soil and the returns of the Holy Crown of Hungary. Between its first removal from Hungary to Austria (1205) and its latest return there from USA (1978), the chief symbol of Hungarian statehood had spent some 135 years abroad, that is, roughly a sixth part of the whole period. The longest foreign stays took place in the sixteenth, twentieth and fifteenth centuries (1551–1608: 57 years in Vienna and Prague, 1945–78: 33 years in Austria, Germany and USA, 1440–63: 23 years in Austria). The longest journey was made after 1953, when it was transported from Germany to Fort Knox, Kentucky. Ten out of the eleven foreign stays concerned Austria and seven the city of Vienna, a clear indication of the extent to which the history of Hungary had been interlocked with that of Central Europe. On five occasions, the crown was taken abroad because of an acute danger of war (1241: Mongol Invasion, 1663 and 1683: Ottoman Conquest, 1703: War of Independence of Francis Rákóczi II, 1945: World War II). In some half of the return journeys exerted a decisive influence of the course of Hungarian history, especially in 1463, 1608, 1790, 1853, and 1978.

A stochastic optimisation model for biomass outsourcing in the cement manufacturing industry with production planning constraints

It is estimated that 12–15% of total global industrial energy is consumed by the Cement Manufacturing Industry (CMI). To improve environmental sustainability, biomass has been used as an alternative to fossil fuels. There is a comprehensive literature on biomass production and conversion, but little attention has been paid to biomass logistics in the cement industry. We propose the use of cement distribution trucks to collect biomass on their return journeys. Compared with the use of specialist biomass suppliers, the collection of biomass via cement distribution networks has greater uncertainties in delivery times, volume and quality. This is because biomass collection is a secondary activity and is subject to cement order quantities and the random geographical locations of cement customers. To cope with these uncertainties, additional on-site storage and handling equipment is required. This paper proposes a stochastic programming model to measure the cost-effectiveness of collecting biomass using returning cement distribution trucks in comparison with purchasing biomass from specialised biomass suppliers. A numerical experiment based on a real-word dataset was conducted to verify the effectiveness of the developed model.

Libretas de un escritor viajero: Saer como naturalista amateur

En este artículo se analizarán las libretas que Saer llevaba en sus viajes por Francia y Latinoamérica pero que utilizaba fundamentalmente para apuntar sus regresos al país, desde 1982 hasta el año 2002. Tanto al hacer anotaciones sobre aspectos observados del paisaje como durante las notas preparatorias para futuros ensayos, Saer cita y reescribe las imágenes y las codificaciones de otros viajeros que tempranamente formalizaron el paisaje del Río de La Plata. Interesará pensar qué operaciones y modos de observación practicados por estos exploradores retoma Saer y cómo los reescribe en función de su propio proyecto escritural e indagar cómo trama su regreso a la ‘zona’ autofigurándose como un naturalista amateur que dialoga fundamentalmente con William Hudson.

The characteristics of asymmetric pedestrian behavior: A preliminary study using passive smartphone location data

AbstractUnderstanding the movements of people is essential for the design and management of urban areas. This article presents a novel approach to understanding the asymmetry in route choice (i.e., the degree to which people choose different walking routes for their outbound and return journeys). The study utilizes a large volume of traces of individual routes, captured using a smartphone application. The routes are aggregated to a regular grid, and matrix statistics are developed to estimate the aggregate degree of route asymmetry for different types of route (shortest, longest, weekday, weekend, etc.). The results suggest that people change their route approximately 15% of the time. Although this varied little when observing trips made at the weekend or on a weekday, people taking journeys that deviated substantially from the shortest possible path were 6 percentage points less likely to change their routes than those taking journeys that were closest to the shortest path (14 and 20% asymmetry, respectively). The absolute length also impacted on the asymmetry of journeys, but not as substantially. This result is important because, for the first time, it reports a correlation between deviation from shortest route and aggregate pedestrian choice.

Miniaturisation decreases visual navigational competence in ants

Evolution of a smaller body size in a given lineage, called miniaturisation, is commonly observed in many animals including ants. It affects various morphological features and is hypothesised to result in inferior behavioural capabilities, possibly owing to smaller sensory organs. To test this hypothesis, we studied whether reduced spatial resolution of compound eyes influences obstacle detection or obstacle avoidance in five different species of ants. We trained all ant species to travel to a sugar feeder. During their return journeys, we placed an obstacle close to the nest entrance. We found that ants with higher spatial resolution exited the corridor - the area between the two ends of the obstacle - on average 10 cm earlier, suggesting they detected the obstacle earlier in their path. Ants with the lowest spatial resolution changed their viewing directions only when they were close to the obstacle. We discuss the effects of miniaturisation on visual navigational competence in ants.

African immigrants as tourists? The temporary home visits of transnational migrants in South Africa

The paper contributes to exploring the intersection of tourism and migration, an emergent niche area of research. South Africa hosts a large number of transnational migrants, immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers, mostly from the African continent. Little is known about the travel patterns and touristic aspirations of these groups, as they are mostly believed to be too poor to travel. The current study focuses on the temporary return journeys home undertaken by these migrants. The literature around Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR) tourism is reviewed, but it is argued – in line with other scholars – that the VFR classification is insufficient for an analysis of migrant return trips. Based on a qualitative research approach and in-depth semi-structured interviews with migrants and refugees based in Durban and Pietermaritzburg, the research finds how these travellers organise their journeys, what their motivations and experiences are, and what significance they attach to the home visit. It is found that travel to the home land is not always motivated by VFR. Beyond the emotional support from family and friends, for many migrants, the home land is an important, multifarious resource for present and future needs. Pointing out differences with similar studies conducted in various socio-geographic contexts, the paper emphasises the need for locally grounded research and the limited generalisability of extant literature in the field.