DEPENDENCE OF SUPRALINEARITY ON PRE-DOSE: SOME OBSERVATIONS

Recent studies on pottery and related materials have shown there to be cases where the degree of supralinearity is dependent on the previous radiation history of the sample. Results are presented of two investigations of this variation with pre-dose: one using pottery, the other using fired feldspars. For these samples no simple form for the variation can be inferred.     

SOME OBSERVATIONS ON GEOGRAPHIC EDUCATION IN AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES

The basic elements of geographic education in American universities are considered, including the number of geography departments, number of students specializing in geography, and the number of teachers. The teacher-to-student ratio, the nature of geographic specialization, and some features of the educational process are outlined, using the Department of Geography of the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign as an example. Some new trends in the development of American geography are brought out, such as the growing interest in physical geography and in research on domestic matters, and a greater emphasis on applied geography. (The translation is by R. Bruce Wood, University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign.)     

SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE STRUCTURE OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC CELLULAR NETWORKS

The paper has presented an approach to cellular network pattern analysis which is novel in several respects. First, the approach emphasizes the consideration of the complete geometric structure of the pattern rather than the examination of summary statistics for individual variables or correlations between pairs or other combinations of variables. By comparing empirical structures with model-generated ones it is suggested that the approach offers a way of evaluating the relative impact of the three major forces thought to be responsible for the geometric structure of a network, i.e., the generating process, the phenomena expressed in the network, and the function of the network. It was demonstrated how different processes can lead to diverse geometric structures. Examination of two empirical networks composed of bus service centre hinterlands suggested that the generating process was the dominant determinant of physical structure in this particular instance. However, more research on other cellular networks consisting of different phenomena, and on different generative processes, must be undertaken before any firm conclusions can be reached. The approach taken here would seem to offer one way of undertaking such research.     

PLACE AND SPACE IN CONTEMPORARY EUROPE: SOME LESSONS AND REFLECTIONS*

The “localities debate,” stimulated by the Economic and Social Research Council's “Changing Urban and Regional Systems” initiative, was conducted in the pages of Antipode and Society and Space at a length that showed scant regard for emerging environmental sensitivities. Much of it involved politically contentious claims and increasingly exhausted theory; it resolved very little and in that sense was little more than a storm in a pretty familiar pudding basin. A later flirtation with postmodernism simply pushed aside questions of explanation while raising the political stakes as celebration of the differences between places became the order of the day. Nonetheless, important issues emerge from or relate to that debate, and we draw on our experiences to comment on three of them: (i) agents, structures, the production of space and the material bases of place: some issues of theory; (ii) the production of places, people's attachment to place, and place-based political strategies: some issues of practice; (iii) localities, postmodernism and the difference that place makes: is the regressive turn to postmodernism as approach avoidable?     

PERCEPTIONS FROM BEYOND: SOME OBSERVATIONS ON NON-ROMAN ASSESSMENTS OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE FROM THE GREAT EASTERN TRADE ROUTES

<正>I.Transcontinental Connectivity Centuries of continuous warfare and successful expansion turned the Roman Empire into the single dominant power in the Mediterranean basin.Yet,although Roman warfare never fully came to an end,the countryside and the two to three thousand cities of the Empire in Italy and the provinces experienced many     

2. IN DEFENSE OF PROVINCIALIZING EUROPE: A RESPONSE TO CAROLA DIETZE

This response to Carola Dietze's critique of Provincializing Europe takes up for examination three key expressions or ideas on which the original argument of the book was founded: hyperreal Europe, historicism, and political modernity. I appreciate the spirit of Dietze's engagement with the book, but I show that her critique is based on a degree of misapprehension of these three central ideas. While clarifying the details and the degree of my disagreement with Dietze, I provide my own critique of Dietze's proposal of “equal histories” by arguing that Dietze has not named or explained the unit with respect to which different histories could be considered equal. I also argue that Dietze's proposals about judging societies only by their “own” standards, and basing human dignity on the idea of a “human nature” that could be seen as a “constant,” do not solve the problems she sees with my book and are themselves open to some serious historical and logical criticism.