Civilizing nature: national parks in global historical perspective

During the latter half of the 19th century, small Belgian chapels appeared on the rural landscape of the Door Peninsula, Wisconsin. The construction of these chapels by devout Catholics resulted from promises made for answers received to specific prayers of favor. Usually located immediately adjacent to section-line roads, they were used by family members, neighbors and by folks from afar. This study details the character and distribution of these chapels. The remaining chapels serve as an element of the Belgian material culture.     

A socioeconomic impact assessment of three Italian national parks

The expansion of protected areas (PAs) is feared to negatively affect the local economy, as every PA, albeit to different degrees, entails restriction to the economic activities. The literature on the topic has started assessing what is the socioeconomic impact of PAs, mostly focusing on the Global South. The objective of this article is the analysis of the socioeconomic impact of three Italian national parks (NPs), established in the 2000s, using a counterfactual approach based on both the outcome regression diff-in-diff and the doubly robust diff-in-diff combined with different propensity score-based and Mahalanobis distance matching procedures. We find that the three Italian NPs have a robust and statistically significant impact on average income of residents in municipalities hosting them. Conversely, there is weak evidence that population and local establishments are positively affected, and touristic local establishments and employment are negatively affected by the three NPs. All together the results indicate that the three NPs have no negative effect on the socioeconomic dynamics of the territories impacted, although additional investigations are required to shed lights to the impact mechanisms.     

The 2010 independence jubilees: the politics and aesthetics of national commemoration in Africa

In 2010, as many as seventeen African states celebrated their independence jubilees. The debates surrounding the organisation of these celebrations, and the imagery and performances they employed, reflect the fault lines with which African nation‐building has to contend, such as competing political orientations as well as religious, regional and ethnic diversity. The celebrations represented constitutive and cathartic moments of nation‐building, aiming to enhance citizens' emotional attachments to the country and inviting to remember, re‐enact and re‐redefine national history. They became a forum of debate about what should constitute the norms and values that make‐up national identity and, in the interstices of official ceremonies, provided space for the articulation of new demands for public recognition. A study of the independence celebrations thus allows us to explore contested processes of nation‐building and images of nationhood and to study the role of ritual and performance in the (re)production of nations.     

The 13th national congress of the Chinese communist party and the agenda of Chinese politics

The 13th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), held in Beijing 25 October‐1 November 1987, continued the general re‐orientation of Chinese politics evident during the last decade. This paper discusses some of the main preparations for and proceedings of the Congress. It then focuses on two key aspects of the Congress: authoritative expression of the Party's overall orientation or ‘line'; and treatment of ‘reform of the political structure’. These themes are consistent with the reformist programme dominant within the Party and are central to the Chinese political agenda established by the Congress.     

Uncontrolled urban housing in interwar Greece: the rise of the city in urban and national politics

The case of urban housing in interwar Greece was unique. After the end of the war in Asia Minor in 1922 almost 1.3 million Greek Orthodox refugees transferred from Turkey to Greece in the first obligatory exchange of populations in world history. Until that time accommodation and property were the privilege of the rich and there was no consideration for public housing as welfare to cater for the needs of low-income people. This paper explores how the impact of uncontrolled housing in the urban centres of interwar Greece led to the emergence of the town in urban and national politics. It will investigate how the uncontrolled housing defined different spatial configurations and reflected various forms of power relations. It will examine how the need for housing of the masses of refugees led to the collapse of the limited infrastructure and had a catalytic effect on town planning. It will also analyse how urban issues were raised on the political agenda and the way that cities produced electoral behaviours that changed the political map of the country.     

A Deleuzian critique of resource-use management politics in Industria

In an era of increasingly well‐attended and violent protests around the world against globalisation, this commentary seeks to answer the crucial question: The globalisation of what? The answer proposed is that what is globalising is ‘Industria’, a multiplicitous, global system of power/knowledge, a vast ‘machinic assemblage’ recently accreted from diverse, competing world systems. After describing some of the most serious challenges facing human communities and the rest of the biosphere, the commentary enlists the aid of the philosopher Gilles Deleuze and his colleague Félix Guattari to expose the cognitive errors underlying political and environmental problems. Applying Deleuze's philosophy of difference to geopolitics and resource‐use management, it is shown that representational epistemologies and a negative ontology of identity obscure the myriad interconnections among human and non‐human beings, leading to conflict and ecological degradation. From there, the ‘Industria’ hypothesis is presented as a conceptual response to Deleuze and Guattari's critique of the ‘Urstaat’ and as a framework for scholars grappling with the need to achieve socioeconomic and ecological sustainability. Finally, the commentary briefly explores the potential of a differential, bioregional geopolitics as a civilised alternative to the predations of Industria.     

The politics of the diarist

Peter Howson, The Life of Politics: The Howson Diaries, ed. Don Aitkin, Melbourne, The Viking Press, pp. 1013. $39.95     

Performative citizenship and the politics of scale: Local,national and global citizenships in Zimbabwe

This paper explores the interaction between different scales of governance and performative citizenship, understood as acts by citizens that claim new political rights and reshape the political arena. Performance allows citizens to creatively transform the meanings and functions of citizenship during struggles over rights. The paper focuses on a series of examples in Zimbabwe, which highlight the entanglement of different scales of citizenship and the ways that the acts of citizenship both challenge and sustain these relationships. This is examined through a framework that combines theories of performative citizenship with concepts from human geography that examine scales of governance. The argument draws out the implications of these dynamics in relation to conflicts over customary citizenship in rural Zimbabwe, the issue of dual citizenship among white Zimbabweans and the exercise of citizenship rights by non-Zimbabweans. It highlights both the ways in which citizens have harnessed the creative potential of acts of citizenship which address multiple scales, and the constraints that scalar hierarchies put on citizen action. The examples demonstrate that new forms of political rights can be produced across scales, but that opportunities for creative acts of citizenship are unevenly distributed due to these scalar hierarchies, which are produced by postcolonial legacies.     

The Marcoses and authoritarian rule in the Philippines

Filemon C. Rodriguez, The Marcos Regime: Rape of the Nation, New York, Vantage Press, 1985, pp.285 (reprinted by Moed Press, Quezon City, 1986. Pesos 130.00, paper).

Charles C. McDougald, The Marcos File: Was he a Philippine Hero or a Corrupt Tyrant? San Francisco, San Francisco Publishers, 1987, pp.345. $14.95 (paper).

Raymond Bonner, Waltzing with a Dictator: the Marcoses and the Making of American Policy, London, Macmillan, 1987, pp.533. $39.95 (cloth).

Belinda A. Aquino, Politics of Plunder: the Philippines under Marcos, Quezon City, Great Books Trading and University of the Philippines College of Public Administration, 1987, pp.208. Pesos 100.00 (paper).

Lewis E. Gleeck, President Marcos and the Philippine Political Culture, Manila, Loyal Printing, 1987, pp. 280. US$20.00 (paper).     

The Micropolitics of Indigenous Environmental Movements in the Philippines

Indigenous movements face what Stuart Kirsch has called the ‘risks of counterglobalization’, which can distort their objectives into an all‐or‐nothing position with respect to development. In this contribution, I explore a case from the Philippines, where a movement originally conceived in terms of indigenous rights grew to include a more diverse mix of constituents and claims. This trajectory has made the movement vulnerable to charges of inauthenticity, particularly since the corporation it opposes has sponsored a parallel indigenous group and fashioned itself as the noble custodian of a threatened marine ecosystem. Nevertheless, the movement's constituents do not evaluate their activities exclusively in terms of its formal objectives or identity politics. For them, organized protest is entangled with the ‘serious games’ of everyday life, including, for example, local elections, struggles to achieve upward social mobility and efforts to redefine ethnic identity. As a result, some constituents see their involvement primarily as a claim to socioeconomic parity and others as a pursuit of the exceptional rights that indigeneity confers. Without attention to such local‐level variation, we risk obscuring some of the most important motives and outcomes of indigenous movements — and, as a result, we may overlook the alternative visions of socio‐environmental justice that emerge from their day‐to‐day struggles for livelihood, dignity and empowerment.     

困境中的菲律宾科迪勒拉水稻梯田

世界文化遗产菲律宾科迪勒拉水稻梯田位于菲律宾吕宋岛科迪勒拉山脉沿线的伊富高省,由分布在4个市的5个梯田群组成,分别为基安干市（Kiangan）的Nagacadan梯田群、洪都安市（Hungdun）梯田群、梅奥瑶市（Mayoyao）梯田群以及巴纳维市（Banaue）的Bangaan和Batad梯田群组成。     

Australia-China FTA: China's domestic politics and the roots of different national approaches to FTAs

This article seeks to explain why the Free Trade Agreement negotiation between Australia and China has been extremely difficult, despite political goodwill from Beijing and Canberra. It first argues that the reason for the slow progress of the negotiation is not caused by lack of motivation from the Chinese government. It then lists the differences in negotiation between China and Australia, focusing on their respective selective vs. comprehensive, border vs. behind-the-border, flexible vs. rigid and state vs. market approaches. It then looks into domestic politics in China to explain why China has taken such a stance, underlining domestic resistance from sectors like agriculture and services in a dynamic domestic political environment on the one hand, and the structure of the policymaking institution that constrains the power of trade negotiators on the other. It concludes by pointing out where the potential for a breakthrough in the FTA negotiation lies.