Oceanic islands are good model systems with which to explore factors affecting exotic species diversity. Islands vary in size, topography, substrate type, degree of isolation, native species diversity, history, human population characteristics, and economic development. Moreover, islands are highly vulnerable to exotic species establishment. We used AICc analyses of data on 1132 vascular plant species for 15 countries and 114 islands from the Pacific Island Ecosystems at Risk (PIER) project to examine biological, geographical, and socioeconomic correlates of exotic species richness. PIER provides data on the distribution of naturalized non-native plant species thought to pose environmental or economic risk. We hypothesized that the numbers of PIER-listed species would be positively correlated with island size, habitat diversity, and proximity to major source pools for propagules. Further, we expected numbers of PIER-listed exotic species to be similar among islands in the same country and to be greater where human populations were larger and where economic activity was high. Most species (908) were found on ≤ 10 islands. Species number was significantly correlated with island and country areas and with native plant species richness. The strongest model revealed by AICc analyses of island data included log (area) and maximum elevation as well as country membership, substrate type, and presence of an airport with paved runway (an index of economic activity). By country, AICc analyses revealed two equivalent models, both of which included log (area) and per capita gross domestic product as well as a measure of population size (either log (population size) or (population density)). Our analyses provide strong evidence of the roles of biogeographic, environmental, and socioeconomic impacts on the distribution and spread of exotic species.

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In this article, I analyze how ideas of attachment to place and the experience of political and economic marginality combine to produce a particular moral geography for people of the Manambondro region of southeast Madagascar. Though the elements of this moral geography comprise an archive of sorts of the colonial encounter, they also speak of people's consciousness of their marginality within the postcolonial present. I argue that moral geography represents a structure of feeling, a form of social consciousness that captures something profound about people's senses of place and also, regarding their ambivalence toward modernity, their sense of who they are and who they might become, [colonialism, modernity, moral geography, place, postcolonialism, structure of feeling, Madagascar]On an overcast afternoon in mid-1992, I stood next to Kotozaka, watching the events held to commemorate and honor a deceased elder of the village of Manambondro in southeast Madagascar. At one point, Kotozaka turned to me and said, "Fomba gasy-ohatran'ne biby. Ratsy he fomba doboky. Misy depense be" [This is Malagasy custom-just like animals. Funerary customs are bad. There is great expense]. Did we vazaha (foreigners) do such things, he asked, did we kill cattle when an old man died? 1 "No/' I said, "We don't kill cattle, though we do spend a lot of money on a funeral," and I proceeded to elaborate on the nature of "our customs." When I had finished, Kotozaka turned to me and said, "Tsara-tsara nandroso" [Good-it is good to be developed].Kotozaka's remarks were not the only time I encountered debates over differences of custom and issues of what it is to be developed played out in relation to the dead. One day, news reached Manambondro that Neny, a woman from a nearby village who had lived for many years in the capital of Madagascar, had died and that her body was being returned to her ancestral homeland (tanin-drazana) for burial. The news prompted discussion between Neny's relatives on her father's and mother's side, and it was agreed that the funeral would be hosted by the mother's group. A couple of days later, a truck arrived bearing Neny's brother, several relatives on her father's side, and Neny's corpse in a casket. No sooner had the casket arrived than an argument broke out between Neny's brother and people of his (and Neny's) mother's group. The brother demanded that the funeral should be conducted in his own village (that of Neny's father's group) rather than in the mother's village, this despite the fact that the elders of the father's group had already agreed that the mother's group would host the funeral. The argument continued for much of the night, and early next morning senior members of Neny's father's group arrived to try and resolve the situation.American Ethnologist29 (2):366-391. Copyright©

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The paper is based on survey work undertaken in the Cynon valley, south Wales, an area of high social deprivation. We interviewed local solicitors to establish their understanding and usage of the Human Rights Act (HRA). Outside of south Wales there is evidence of growing awareness and involvement of specialist practitioners in human rights actions. This we call a top‐down process. Our work starts at the other end: a bottom‐up account of high‐street, small‐practice solicitors.

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