Journal articles on the topic 'Leges Saxonum'

Almost all German codices – except for Lex Saxonum, Lex Thuringorum, and Ewa Chamavorum – extensively discuss legal protection of the grave and the dead body and sanction persons who disgrace them. This scope of issues is dwelt upon in details by Edictum Theodorici, Leges Visigothorum, Lex Burgundionum, Edictus Rothari, Lex Salica, Lex Ribuaria, the Pactus, Lex Alamannorum, and Lex Baiuvariorum.In the present paper, we analyse the state of facts that constitute grave robbery in Frankish laws. This investigation requires the analysis of the legal source base as well as some examination in the history of language, which allows a comparative analysis of the issue and helps to highlight the various layers of the norms of Frankish laws by the example of this state of facts.

According to Sir Maitland and Sir Pollock, the „Anglo-Saxon law is not only archaic, but offers an especially pure type of Germanic archaism”. This means that the Old-English law is free from any Roman or Christian element, thus it is inherenlty different among other Germanic customary laws. The law codes (in Old-English they are called domas) are written in their own language, unlike other Germanic tribes who wrote in Latin. Altough the Roman and Christian elements will appear in the Isle when Aethelberht changes religion, the impacts are minimal. In other words: those who want to come to know the closest one of the Germanic customary laws to the original, they should pay attention to the „lost child” of the Leges Barbarorum: the Leges Anglo-Saxonum. In my essay the questions are simple: what characterizes the legal status of a married woman and a widow? Is she an object or a person? What happens with her and her property after the death of her husband? There are answers, but they are comlicated. The provisions are obscure and are difficult to understand because their language is archaic, and the researchers are subjective to the point where we no longer knows the truth. This way there is no end of the presumptions and guesses, the literature is often contravene with itself, thus it is necessary to take a commitment in some questions. Still I think there is some kind of an objective reality I found: a woman is not less than a living person but sadly she cannot be totally equivalent with men (and her husband).

The analysis of Polish penal law sources allows to state that the influence of Roman law can be noticed also in this branch of law. Its direct application can also be observed in the Middle Ages and in the centuries that followed. The Cracow Academy Erection Act and the Priviledge of the City of Cracow, both dated May 12th, 1364, ordered that every lay scholar, bedel, stationarius etc., who was accused of serious crimes, should be responsible before the king’s court iuxta leges, that is according to Roman law. The rule was restated several times and it shows a surprising vitality, as it not only survived in Poland of the Nobility Republic but was invoked in the eighteenth century as well. Roman law was also applied in two famous crimen laesae maiestatis casas in 1620 and 1773. During the proceedings, their participants cited Justinian's collections several times when they perceived a lack of domestic regulation. The courts called upon the collections in certain degree in both cases. Urban law gives numerous examples in this area of studies. For years, the law was considered the domain of Roman law influence in Poland. The writings of Bartłomiej Groicki, who lived in the sixteenth century, broadly relate the crimen laesae maiestatis and they contain various direct appleals to Roman law (C. de feriis L. Provinciarum praesides, lex lulia de adulterii coercendis, lex Attinia, lex India et Płatnia, lex X II Tabularum etc.) which create a basis for his ample deliberation. It seems that the most interesting discussion concerns the typical for Roman law penalty for patricides (poena cullei). Its reception into Polish urban law had occurred through Speculum Saxonum and it constitutes a strong evidence for the influence of the Roman law system on penal legislation.

Abstract New research on Anglo-Saxon law. The article reviews five works connected to Anglo-Saxon legislation in different fields of research. The material for Volume II of Wormald’s opus magnum existed in various stages of development when Wormald died in 2004 and it is a miscellaneous collection of papers and lectures, partly delivered at the University of Oxford by the author. Roach is connected to the teachings of Wormald as a historian of kingship; challenging old models, Roach focuses with comparative eyes on the role of assemblies in Anglo-Saxon England as an essential feature of kingship. An „unaccustomed point of view“ on early English law is also held by Jurasinki/Falk who offer the 1st complete edition of Theodor’s canons and by Jurasinski’s work on those penitentials which gave advice on matters of secular law. In doing this he discovers not only that the scribes who translated them from Latin recasted them into new rules intended to better suit the needs of English laypeople, but also how wrong it is to assume that only kings participated in the creation of Anglo-Saxon legal culture. A review of works on early English legislation cannot avoid the question of language of the legal sources. They were mostly written in the Anglo-Saxon vernacular rather than in Latin like the continental leges. Hough brings together historical and linguistic evidence and explores various aspects of the legal system of Anglo-Saxon England, focusing particularly on the interpretation of laws on the position of women in society.

This paper examines Leges Scocie (LS), the main source used by Patrick Wormald in ‘Anglo-Saxon Law and Scots Law’. It is shown here that the capitula of LS reveal much not only about the development of legal procedure in Scotland but also about the nature of medieval Scottish society in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. In the process of this discussion, some conclusions put forward by Wormald about this material are questioned. This paper also shows that the ‘laws’ of David, William and Alexander II, once believed to be nebulous texts without any clear manuscript form, are, in fact, coherent legal compilations worthy of study in their own right. This corrects the impression that the early laws of Scotland survive in a manuscript tradition too late and too complicated to be studied with any fruitful results and thus opens up the material in volume i of The Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland for further study. The paper concludes by arguing that the evidence contained in all these lawcodes can provide rather different narratives of subjects that are key to our understanding of Scotland during the central Middle Ages: the exercise of royal power, the ‘Anglo-Norman Era’ and the extent of the Scottish state before the twelfth century.

The aim of the research is to cast light on the legal regime of the mining area land in medieval Serbia and to answer to what extent Saxon customary mining law was accepted in this aspect and what the ratio legis of article 123 of Dušan's Code was? It seems likely that until the enactment of Dušan's Code it was possible to occupy land cleared for mining purposes and to acquire property of the mining area, which was previously res nullius. However, Dušan's Code changed this rule prescribing only the possibility of acquiring the time limited mining concession, which was motived by possible permanent monopolization of the land in the mining areas. At the same time, the Code proclaimed the right of ore search and exploration on the feudal lords' land. Similarities to the older Hungarian and Czech law indicates legal transplantation. The mining concession was regulated in Despot Stefan's Mining Code for Novo Brdo, which prescribed detailed rules for losing the concession in the case of neglecting the mining activity. Based on similarities one can assume that these rules were mostly the reception of the Saxon customary mining law, also written in late medieval mining laws of Hungary and Czechia. However, the small differences may show that after one and a half century the Serbian mining community introduced its own unique rules. Research is based on linguistic, systematic and historical analysis of the sources as well as the regressive analysis and comparative method.

Die in Deutschland seit 2009 nahezu fortlaufend sinkenden Arbeitslosenquoten in Kombination mit steigenden Ausgaben der Bundesagentur für Arbeit ­legen die Frage nach der Effizienz der Arbeitsagenturen nahe. Verschiedene Studien haben sich in der Vergangenheit dieses Themas angenommen. In dem vorliegenden Beitrag wird auf Basis von Daten aus dem Jahr 2018 die Bewertung der relativen Effizienzen unter Anwendung der Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) durchgeführt. Dies geschieht auf Basis realer In- und Outputs, was eine objektive Effizienzbewertung der Arbeitsagenturen verspricht. Für die Effi­zienzbewertungen werden insgesamt 16 ausgewählte Arbeitsagenturen der Regionaldirektion Niedersachen-Bremen herangezogenen. Die Analysen zeigen, dass die im Rahmen der vorliegenden Studie betrachteten Arbeitsagenturen ­relativ hohe Effizienzwerte aufweisen. Für ineffiziente Arbeitsagenturen werden Handlungsempfehlungen zur Steigerung ihrer Effizienz ausgesprochen. Eine allgemeine Aussage über die Effizienz einzelner Prozesse oder den Einsatz des Budgets der Arbeitsagenturen lässt sich auf Grundlage der Berechnungen (noch) nicht treffen. Efficiency Evaluation of Employment Agencies by Means of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) The almost continuous decline in unemployment rates in Germany since 2009, combined with rising expenditure by the Federal Employment Agency, suggests the question of the efficiency of the employment agencies. Various studies have addressed this issue in the past. This paper uses data from 2018 to assess relative efficiencies using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). This is done on the basis of real inputs and outputs, which promises an objective efficiency assessment of employment agencies. A total of 16 selected employment agencies of the Regional Directorate of Lower Saxony-Bremen are used for the efficiency evaluations. The analyses show that the employment agencies considered in this study have relatively high efficiency values. Recommendations for action to increase the efficiency of inefficient employment agencies are made. A general statement on the efficiency of individual processes or the use of the budget of the employment agencies cannot (yet) be made on the basis of the calculations.

A short time after 1206 and before 1215, a Londoner assembled a massive collection of older and near contemporary English laws, called theLeges Anglorumby historians, and inserted long interpolations and spurious codes that enunciated many of the principles that guided the baronial opposition to King John and later became part of the Magna Carta. To those familiar with the struggle leading up to the creation of the Magna Carta, these principles should cause no surprise. These ancient laws were made to proclaim that “in the kingdom right and justice ought to reign more than perverse will” (ECf4, 11.1.A.6; Liebermann 1903, 635). In another part of the collection, King Arthur, making his first appearance in English law, is credited with establishing as law the requirement that all nobles, knights, and freemen of the whole kingdom of Britain swear “to defend the kingdom against foreigners and enemies” (ECf4, 32.A.5–7; Liebermann 1903, 655). More surprising is the attribution of the regularly assembled Hustings court in London to the Trojans (who became the Britons). The seventh-century West Saxon king, Ine, suddenly looms large in the ranks of Britain's lawmakers; he not only reigns for the good of all, but is also given the lordly virtues of twelfth-century chivalric romance: he is “generous, wise, prudent, moderate, strong, just, spirited, and warlike” (as was appropriate for the time and place) (ECf4, 32.C.2, 32.C.8; Liebermann 1903, 658–59). A confection of bits of other law, attributed here to King Alfred, orders an end to vice, national education for freemen, and unity for all “as if sworn brothers for the utility of the kingdom” (Leges Angl, Pseudo-Alfred 1–6; Liebermann 1894, 19–20). Finally, in the grandest statement of English political ambition, Arthur appears again as the great conqueror, whose spirit was not satisfied by Britain alone: “Courageously and speedily he subjugated all Scandinavia, which is now called Norway, and all the islands beyond, namely Iceland and Greenland, which belong to Norway, Sweden, Ireland, Gotland, Denmark, Samland, Vinland, Curland, Runoe, Finland, Wirland, Estland, Karelien,Lapland, and all other lands and islands of the eastern Ocean as far as Russia” (ECf4, 32.E; Liebermann 1903, 659).

Resumen: El racismo como ideología ordenadora y jerarquizadora de la realidad social se configuró en torno a normas y leyes. Fue enunciado en términos legales y jurídicos. Este desarrollo jurídico legal tuvo su máximo exponente en los territorios conquistados y sometidos a régimen de gobierno colonial por parte de las naciones europeas. A pesar de que este desarrollo fue especialmente marcado en las regiones americanas colonizadas por España y Portugal no existe un cuerpo doctrinario latinoamericano consolidado que haya analizado el fenómeno del Derecho y el racismo. Con este artículo proponemos un análisis de la literatura existente en torno a la esclavitud africana y las diferencias sustanciales que existen entre las perspectivas hispanas y anglosajonas que abordan esta cuestión. Exponemos así mismo la necesidad de desarrollar investigaciones que desde una perspectiva no anglocentrada nos permita comprender el fenómeno del racismo en el Derecho colonial de raíz hispana. Consideramos que el análisis de los procesos de racialización de la región desde una epistemología situada podría ayudar a comprender los fenómenos de racialización que suceden en la actualidad.Palabras clave: Derecho, racismo, esclavitud negra, racialización, tecnologías de poder, blanquitud, manumisión, colonialismo, gubernamentalidad, historia atlántica.Abstract: Racism, as a hierarchizing and ordering ideology of the social reality arose as a part of the legal order. Norms and rules were its constituent body. Territories submitted to colonial governance of European nations were its experimentations camps. Despite of the importance of racialized legal orders in colonial Latin-America, the region lacks of its own coherent body of socio-legal studies looking at the colonial racial relations. In this paper I will scrutinize relevant contributions in Law and Race looking at racial relations in colonial Latin America, specifically those related with black slavery. I aim to expose the substantial difference between Latin-American and Anglo-Saxon perspectives. My intention with that is to remark the necessity of developing a non anglocentered analytical perspective of the Iberian colonial world. This will give academics the possibility, not only of understanding Latin-American racial history but also of apprehending the nature of the current racialization processes.Keywords: Law, racism, slavery, black slavery, racialization, technologies of power, whiteness, manumission, colonialism, governmentality, Atlantic history.

The abuse of right is an important institution in the legal system. Although the concept and methods of its use may differ from country to country, the basic concept remains the same: an individual cannot use his legal rights to harm others or to achieve an illegal goal. The historical background of the institution of abuse of right to be traced on the example of Roman law, which introduced the concepts of contra bonos mores (from Latin to harm the moral well-being of society) and in fraudem legis agere (from Latin to act contrary to the law), which today are considered forms of abuse of right. It is important to note that the doctrine of the «abuse of right» in ancient Greece was limited by the fragmentary nature of the surviving legal and philosophical texts. Unlike Roman law, which had a complex legal system and was represented by numerous legal works, ancient Greek legal thought is known mainly through philosophical treatises and historical narratives. As a result, specific discussions of «abuse of right» in ancient Greek sources are unfortunately hard to come by. However, the general ideas of moderation, concern for others, and the pursuit of justice nevertheless indicate a concern and responsible use of rights in ancient Greek society, even if this concept, compared to Roman law, was not clearly formulated. In the Middle Ages, in the Anglo-Saxon law, the theory of abuse of rights developed through the concepts of equity. In the period of recent history (from the middle of the XV century to the end of the XIX – the beginning of the XX century), this institute continues to develop and adapt to the changing conditions of modern society. Some countries, such as France, were among the first to attempt to legislate abuse of rights in their Civil Code. Over time, other jurisdictions have incorporated the statute of abuse of right into their domestic legislation. This concept is also reflected in international law, where it can be applied in the context of human rights, private law, and other fields. The modern understanding of the abuse of right assumes that the use of the right can be recognized as abuse if it does not correspond to its true purpose, harms the interests of other persons or society, and does not comply with the principle of justice. Based on the research and established judicial practice, we conclude that at least one of the following four conditions must be used to establish «abuse of the right»: 1. The predominant motivation for using the right is to cause harm. 2. There is no legal basis for exercising its right. 3. The exercise of the right contradicts the principle of contra bonos mores or violates good faith or justice. 4. The right is not used for its intended purpose. Key words: abuse of right, the Roman law, principle of the inadmissibility of the abuse of right, judicial discretion, principle of good faith, principle of justice.

The article is devoted to the study of the peculiarities of regulating the recourse period to the administrative court from the point of view of due process. Clear up the issue to what extent the consolidation and regulation of the recourse period qualifies the requirements of the legal procedure, namely: clear legislative regulation; inadmissibility of violation of the rights, freedoms and interests of the parties; clear structuredness and regulation. The scientific work investigates the essence of the term circulation term and considers the feasibility of introducing it. An attempt was also made to compare the recourse period with the limitation, arguments are given why the introduction of the terms of appeal in administrative proceedings is not identical to the limitation in civil proceedings. Different positions are considered, referring to the practice of the Supreme Court and the opinions of scientists, why, on the one hand, the limitation cannot be introduced in the administrative process from the point of view of the principle of legal certainty, and on the other hand, how the recourse period violates the right to access to justice. The main attention is paid to the role of the Supreme Court in the formation of approaches to the application of limitations. The concept of contra legem, which is inherent in the countries of the Anglo-Saxon legal family, is considered and is used in cases where there is a need to deviate from the enshrined norm at the legislative level in order to avoid literal application of the law and not make an absurd or unfair decision. The thesis is emphasized, despite the fact that the Supreme Court sometimes deviates from the formally prescribed norms, however, this is the essence of the cassation proceedings: it is an additional guarantee of the protection of subjective rights by correcting judicial errors, as well as a kind of judicial control. The specific decisions of the Supreme Court are considered, in which the approaches to the practice of applying the recourse period have been changed. On the basis of the decisions of the Supreme Court, it was investigated how the Supreme Court by its decisions affects and changes the recourse period fixed at the legislative level, the key positions of the Supreme Court are highlighted, which today are guiding for the subjects of appeal to the administrative court.

In a historical moment, where the future is considered a threat, it seems highly relevant to teach the ability to imagine desirable futures. In line with this, Education for the Future (EF), from the Anglo-Saxon tradition, represents a reference to give a response to negative images about the idea of the future. On the other hand, the competences for democratic culture defined by the Council of Europe provide the basis for the elaboration of a theoretical framework that includes the imagination of democratic and sustainable futures as one of its main conceptual axes. Given this theoretical context, this study analyses official documents of public policies carried out in the Iberian context, to examine the treatment of the idea of future in education systems. Specifically, three levels of public policies have been studied: state educational laws, primary education curricula and institutional teacher training policies. The public policies have been analysed using the normative method of content analysis, with a syntactic sampling strategy, calculating the absolute and relative frequency of the units of analysis. Results show that there are few references to the construction of the concept of the future in public policies and suggest that the opportunity to educate others on the imagination of desirable futures may be being wasted. En un momento histórico en el que el futuro se concibe como una amenaza, parece altamente relevante educar en la capacidad de imaginar futuros deseables. En esta línea, la Educación para el Futuro (EpF), de tradición anglosajona, representa una referencia de trabajo para responder a las imágenes negativas sobre la idea del provenir. Por otro lado, las competencias de cultura democrática definidas por el Consejo de Europa dan pie a la elaboración de un marco teórico que incluye la imaginación de futuros democráticos y sostenibles como uno de sus principales ejes conceptuales. Dada esta interjección teórica, el presente estudio analiza documentos oficiales de políticas públicas llevadas a cabo en ámbito ibérico, para examinar el tratamiento de la idea de futuro en los sistemas educativos. Concretamente, se han estudiado políticas públicas a tres niveles: leyes educativas estatales, currículos de Educación Primaria y políticas institucionales de formación docente, para indagar cuál es la presencia del eje conceptual sobre la imaginación de futuros en estos documentos. Las políticas públicas han sido analizadas mediante el método normativo de análisis de contenido, con una estrategia de muestreo sintáctico, calculando la frecuencia absoluta y relativa de unidades de análisis. Los resultados muestran que hay escasas referencias a la construcción del concepto de futuro en las políticas públicas, y dan a entender que se puede estar desaprovechando la oportunidad de educar para la imaginación de futuros deseables.

Introduction The academic area known as food studies—incorporating elements from disciplines including anthropology, folklore, history, sociology, gastronomy, and cultural studies as well as a range of multi-disciplinary approaches—asserts that cooking and eating practices are less a matter of nutrition (maintaining life by absorbing nutrients from food) and more a personal or group expression of various social and/or cultural actions, values or positions. The French philosopher, Michel de Certeau agrees, arguing, moreover, that there is an urgency to name and unpick (what he identifies as) the “minor” practices, the “multifarious and silent reserve of procedures” of everyday life. Such practices are of crucial importance to all of us, as although seemingly ordinary, and even banal, they have the ability to “organise” our lives (48). Within such a context, the following aims to consider the influence and significance of an important (although largely unstudied) professional figure in rural and regional economic life: the country food preparer variously known as the local chef or cook. Such an approach is obviously framed by the concept of “cultural economy”. This term recognises the convergence, and interdependence, of the spheres of the cultural and the economic (see Scott 335, for an influential discussion on how “the cultural geography of space and the economic geography of production are intertwined”). Utilising this concept in relation to chefs and cooks seeks to highlight how the ways these figures organise (to use de Certeau’s term) the social and cultural lives of those in their communities are embedded in economic practices and also how, in turn, their economic contributions are dependent upon social and cultural practices. This initial mapping of the influence and significance of the rural and regional chef in one rural and regional area, therefore, although necessarily different in approach and content, continues the application of such converged conceptualisations of the cultural and economic as Teema Tairu’s discussion of the social, recreational and spiritual importance of food preparation and consumption by the unemployed in Finland, Guy Redden’s exploration of how supermarket products reflect shared values, and a series of analyses of the cultural significance of individual food products, such as Richard White’s study of vegemite. While Australians, both urban and rural, currently enjoy access to an internationally renowned food culture, it is remarkable to consider that it has only been during the years following the Second World War that these sophisticated and now much emulated ways of eating and cooking have developed. It is, indeed, only during the last half century that Australian eating habits have shifted from largely Anglo-Saxon influenced foods and meals that were prepared and eaten in the home, to the consumption of a wider range of more international and sophisticated foods and meals that are, increasingly, prepared by others and eaten outside the consumer’s residence. While a range of commonly cited influences has prompted this relatively recent revolution in culinary practice—including post-war migration, increasing levels of prosperity, widespread international travel, and the forces of globalisation—some of this change owes a debt to a series of influential individual figures. These tastemakers have included food writers and celebrity chefs; with early exponents including Margaret Fulton, Graham Kerr and Charmaine Solomon (see Brien). The findings of this study suggests that many restaurant chefs, and other cooks, have similarly played, and continue to take, a key role in the lives of not only the, necessarily, limited numbers of individuals who dine in a particular eatery or the other chefs and/or cooks trained in that establishment (Ruhlman, Reach), but also the communities in which they work on a much broader scale. Considering Chefs In his groundbreaking study, A History of Cooks and Cooking, Australian food historian Michael Symons proposes that those who prepare food are worthy of serious consideration because “if ‘we are what we eat’, cooks have not just made our meals, but have also made us. They have shaped our social networks, our technologies, arts and religions” (xi). Writing that cooks “deserve to have their stories told often and well,” and that, moreover, there is a “need to invent ways to think about them, and to revise our views about ourselves in their light” (xi), Symons’s is a clarion call to investigate the role and influence of cooks. Charles-Allen Baker-Clark has explicitly begun to address this lacunae in his Profiles from the Kitchen: What Great Cooks Have Taught Us About Ourselves and Our Food (2006), positing not only how these figures have shaped our relationships with food and eating, but also how these relationships impact on identities, culture and a range of social issues including those of social justice, spirituality and environmental sustainability. With the growing public interest in celebrities, it is perhaps not surprising that, while such research on chefs and/or cooks is still in its infancy, most of the existing detailed studies on individuals focus on famed international figures such as Marie-Antoine Carême (Bernier; Kelly), Escoffier (James; Rachleff; Sanger), and Alexis Soyer (Brandon; Morris; Ray). Despite an increasing number of tabloid “tell-all” surveys of contemporary celebrity chefs, which are largely based on mass media sources and which display little concern for historical or biographical accuracy (Bowyer; Hildred and Ewbank; Simpson; Smith), there have been to date only a handful of “serious” researched biographies of contemporary international chefs such as Julia Child, Alice Waters (Reardon; Riley), and Bernard Loiseux (Chelminski)—the last perhaps precipitated by an increased interest in this chef following his suicide after his restaurant lost one of its Michelin stars. Despite a handful of collective biographical studies of Australian chefs from the later-1980s on (Jenkins; O’Donnell and Knox; Brien), there are even fewer sustained biographical studies of Australian chefs or cooks (Clifford-Smith’s 2004 study of “the supermarket chef,” Bernard King, is a notable exception). Throughout such investigations, as well as in other popular food writing in magazines and cookbooks, there is some recognition that influential chefs and cooks have worked, and continue to work, outside such renowned urban culinary centres as Paris, London, New York, and Sydney. The Michelin starred restaurants of rural France, the so-called “gastropubs” of rural Britain and the advent of the “star-chef”-led country bed and breakfast establishment in Australia and New Zealand, together with the proliferation of farmer’s markets and a public desire to consume locally sourced, and ecologically sustainable, produce (Nabhan), has focused fresh attention on what could be called “the rural/regional chef”. However, despite the above, little attention has focused on the Australian non-urban chef/cook outside of the pages of a small number of key food writing magazines such as Australian Gourmet Traveller and Vogue Entertaining + Travel. Setting the Scene with an Australian Country Example: Armidale and Guyra In 2004, the Armidale-Dumaresq Council (of the New England region, New South Wales, Australia) adopted the slogan “Foodies thrive in Armidale” to market its main city for the next three years. With a population of some 20,000, Armidale’s main industry (in economic terms) is actually education and related services, but the latest Tourist Information Centre’s Dining Out in Armidale (c. 2006) brochure lists some 25 restaurants, 9 bistros and brasseries, 19 cafés and 5 fast food outlets featuring Australian, French, Italian, Mediterranean, Chinese, Thai, Indian and “international” cuisines. The local Yellow Pages telephone listings swell the estimation of the total number of food-providing businesses in the city to 60. Alongside the range of cuisines cited above, a large number of these eateries foreground the use of fresh, local foods with such phrases as “local and regional produce,” “fresh locally grown produce,” “the finest New England ingredients” and locally sourced “New England steaks, lamb and fresh seafood” repeatedly utilised in advertising and other promotional material. Some thirty kilometres to the north along the New England highway, the country town of Guyra, proclaimed a town in 1885, is the administrative and retail centre for a shire of some 2,200 people. Situated at 1,325 metres above sea level, the town is one of the highest in Australia with its main industries those of fine wool and lamb, beef cattle, potatoes and tomatoes. Until 1996, Guyra had been home to a large regional abattoir that employed some 400 staff at the height of its productivity, but rationalisation of the meat processing industry closed the facility, together with its associated pet food processor, causing a downturn in employment, local retail business, and real estate values. Since 2004, Guyra’s economy has, however, begun to recover after the town was identified by the Costa Group as the perfect site for glasshouse grown tomatoes. Perfect, due to its rare combination of cool summers (with an average of less than two days per year with temperatures over 30 degrees celsius), high winter light levels and proximity to transport routes. The result: 3.3 million kilograms of truss, vine harvested, hydroponic “Top of the Range” tomatoes currently produced per annum, all year round, in Guyra’s 5-hectare glasshouse: Australia’s largest, opened in December 2005. What residents (of whom I am one) call the “tomato-led recovery” has generated some 60 new local jobs directly related to the business, and significant flow on effects in terms of the demand for local services and retail business. This has led to substantial rates of renovation and building of new residential and retail properties, and a noticeably higher level of trade flowing into the town. Guyra’s main street retail sector is currently burgeoning and stories of its renewal have appeared in the national press. Unlike many similar sized inland towns, there are only a handful of empty shops (and most of these are in the process of being renovated), and new commercial premises have recently been constructed and opened for business. Although a small town, even in Australian country town terms, Guyra now has 10 restaurants, hotel bistros and cafés. A number of these feature local foods, with one pub’s bistro regularly featuring the trout that is farmed just kilometres away. Assessing the Contribution of Local Chefs and Cooks In mid-2007, a pilot survey to begin to explore the contribution of the regional chef in these two close, but quite distinct, rural and regional areas was sent to the chefs/cooks of the 70 food-serving businesses in Armidale and Guyra that I could identify. Taking into account the 6 returns that revealed a business had closed, moved or changed its name, the 42 replies received represented a response rate of 65.5per cent (or two thirds), representatively spread across the two towns. Answers indicated that the businesses comprised 18 restaurants, 13 cafés, 6 bistro/brasseries, 1 roadhouse, 1 takeaway/fast food and 3 bed and breakfast establishments. These businesses employed 394 staff, of whom 102 were chefs and/cooks, or 25.9 per cent of the total number of staff then employed by these establishments. In answer to a series of questions designed to ascertain the roles played by these chefs/cooks in their local communities, as well as more widely, I found a wide range of inputs. These chefs had, for instance, made a considerable contribution to their local economies in the area of fostering local jobs and a work culture: 40 (95 per cent) had worked with/for another local business including but not exclusively food businesses; 30 (71.4 per cent) had provided work experience opportunities for those aspiring to work in the culinary field; and 22 (more than half) had provided at least one apprenticeship position. A large number had brought outside expertise and knowledge with them to these local areas, with 29 (69 per cent) having worked in another food business outside Armidale or Guyra. In terms of community building and sustainability, 10 (or almost a quarter) had assisted or advised the local Council; 20 (or almost half) had worked with local school children in a food-related way; 28 (two thirds) had helped at least one charity or other local fundraising group. An extra 7 (bringing the cumulative total to 83.3 per cent) specifically mentioned that they had worked with/for the local gallery, museum and/or local history group. 23 (more than half) had been involved with and/or contributed to a local festival. The question of whether they had “contributed anything else important, helpful or interesting to the community” elicited the following responses: writing a food or wine column for the local paper (3 respondents), delivering TAFE teacher workshops (2 respondents), holding food demonstrations for Rotary and Lions Clubs and school fetes (5 respondents), informing the public about healthy food (3 respondents), educating the public about environmental issues (2 respondents) and working regularly with Meals on Wheels or a similar organisation (6 respondents, or 14.3 per cent). One respondent added his/her work as a volunteer driver for the local ambulance transport service, the only non-food related response to this question. Interestingly, in line with the activity of well-known celebrity chefs, in addition to the 3 chefs/cooks who had written a food or wine column for the local newspaper, 11 respondents (more than a quarter of the sample) had written or contributed to a cookbook or recipe collection. One of these chefs/cooks, moreover, reported that he/she produced a weblog that was “widely read”, and also contributed to international food-related weblogs and websites. In turn, the responses indicated that the (local) communities—including their governing bodies—also offer some support of these chefs and cooks. Many respondents reported they had been featured in, or interviewed and/or photographed for, a range of media. This media comprised the following: the local newspapers (22 respondents, 52.4 per cent), local radio stations (19 respondents, 45.2 per cent), regional television stations (11 respondents, 26.2 per cent) and local websites (8 respondents, 19 per cent). A number had also attracted other media exposure. This was in the local, regional area, especially through local Council publications (31 respondents, 75 per cent), as well as state-wide (2 respondents, 4.8 per cent) and nationally (6 respondents, 14.3 per cent). Two of these local chefs/cooks (or 4.8 per cent) had attracted international media coverage of their activities. It is clear from the above that, in the small area surveyed, rural and regional chefs/cooks make a considerable contribution to their local communities, with all the chefs/cooks who replied making some, and a number a major, contribution to those communities, well beyond the requirements of their paid positions in the field of food preparation and service. The responses tendered indicate that these chefs and cooks contributed regularly to local public events, institutions and charities (with a high rate of contribution to local festivals, school programs and local charitable activities), and were also making an input into public education programs, local cultural institutions, political and social debates of local importance, as well as the profitability of other local businesses. They were also actively supporting not only the future of the food industry as a whole, but also the viability of their local communities, by providing work experience opportunities and taking on local apprentices for training and mentorship. Much more than merely food providers, as a group, these chefs and cooks were, it appears, also operating as food historians, public intellectuals, teachers, activists and environmentalists. They were, moreover, operating as content producers for local media while, at the same time, acting as media producers and publishers. Conclusion The terms “chef” and “cook” can be diversely defined. All definitions, however, commonly involve a sense of professionalism in food preparation reflecting some specialist knowledge and skill in the culinary arts, as well as various levels of creativity, experience and responsibility. In terms of the specific duties that chefs and professional cooks undertake every day, almost all publications on the subject deal specifically with workplace related activities such as food and other supply ordering, staff management, menu planning and food preparation and serving. This is constant across culinary textbooks (see, for instance, Culinary Institute of America 2002) and more discursive narratives about the professional chef such as the bestselling autobiographical musings of Anthony Bourdain, and Michael Ruhlman’s journalistic/biographical investigations of US chefs (Soul; Reach). An alternative preliminary examination, and categorisation, of the roles these professionals play outside their kitchens reveals, however, a much wider range of community based activities and inputs than such texts suggest. It is without doubt that the chefs and cooks who responded to the survey discussed above have made, and are making, a considerable contribution to their local New England communities. It is also without doubt that these contributions are of considerable value, and valued by, those country communities. Further research will have to consider to what extent these contributions, and the significance and influence of these chefs and cooks in those communities are mirrored, or not, by other country (as well as urban) chefs and cooks, and their communities. Acknowledgements An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Engaging Histories: Australian Historical Association Regional Conference, at the University of New England, September 2007. I would like to thank the session’s participants for their insightful comments on that presentation. A sincere thank you, too, to the reviewers of this article, whose suggestions assisted my thinking on this piece. Research to complete this article was carried out whilst a Visiting Fellow with the Research School of Humanities, the Australian National University. References Armidale Tourist Information Centre. Dining Out in Armidale [brochure]. Armidale: Armidale-Dumaresq Council, c. 2006. Baker-Clark, C. A. 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