A shop is not a home: Nineteenth‐century American sweatshop discourse

The sweated labor, or sweating, system of clothing manufacturers, contractors, and subcontractors who exploited ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ workers was a lamentable fixture of antebellum America. A wide range of reformers called for abolition of the system. Yet it was not until the ‘discovery of poverty’ in the 1890s with its attendant campaigns for public hygiene and tenement house reform that the term ‘sweatshop’ arose to christen the oppressive labor site. This essay traces the ideological reasons for the shift in naming. It correlates the term's adoption with the East European and Italian ethnics who replaced earlier native‐born workers and in so doing analyzes the ideologies embedded in antebellum, Gilded Age, and Progressive‐era discursive practices.     

Sex‐determination as a multivariate problem

The length, breadth, and thickness of the pubis bone of reindeer are used in the estimation of discriminant functions for sex‐determination of relatively recent bone material from Hardangervidda reindeer population. The method is considered to be most reliable (theoretically, 98 % reliable).     

Europe as a global actor: empire by example?

The European Union (EU) spreads its norms and extends its power in various parts of the world in a truly imperial fashion. This is because the EU tries to impose domestic constraints on other actors through various forms of economic and political domination or even formal annexations. This effort has proved most successful in the EU's immediate neighbourhood where the Union has enormous political and economic leverage and where there has been a strong and ever‐growing convergence of norms and values. However, in the global arena where actors do not share European norms and the EU has limited power, the results are limited. Consequently, it is not only Europe's ethical agenda that is in limbo; some basic social preferences across the EU seem also to be unsustainable. Can Europe maintain, let alone enhance, its environmental, labour or food safety norms without forcing global competitors to embrace them? The challenge lies not only in enhancing Europe's global power, but also primarily in exporting rules and norms for which there is more demand among existing and emerging global players. This means that Europe should engage in a dialogue that will help it to establish commonly shared rules of morality and global governance. Only then can Europe's exercise of power be seen as legitimate. It also means that Europe should try to become a ‘model power’ rather than a ‘superpower’, to use David Miliband's expression. The latter approach would imply the creation of a strong European centre able to impose economic pains on uncooperative actors. The former would imply showing other actors that European norms can also work for them and providing economic incentives for adopting these norms. To be successful in today's world, Europe needs to export its governance to other countries, but it can do it in a modest and novel way that will not provoke accusations of ‘regulatory imperialism’.     

Tracing a rune‐carver by groove profile and cut‐marks

Different features of the incised grooves of the runes and ornament on some milestones are registered in minute detail. The measurements are computerized for statistical analysis, thus making the identification of different cutters possible. The study provides evidence that the runes and the ornament on some stones were actually executed by different hands.     

State‐Community Relations in Yemen: Soqotra’s Historical Formation as a Sub‐National Polity

Soqotra Island, the remote border outpost of the Yemeni state in the Indian Ocean, is a community of mixed ethnic composition with a non‐Arabic mother tongue. It offers an ideal socio‐political context for the study of state–community relations in terms of polity formation as part of a political incorporation process. This focus provides a corrective to the still dominant segmentary society paradigm and its tribes‐driven state politics in the anthropological discourse on Yemen. Polity formation in Soqotra occurred through a series of acts of political incorporation by a succession of political regimes from the late nineteenth century to the present. The study of this process is pursued through a historical narrative of the state’s politics of administration. This narrative is aptly described as a mesography, as its analytical focus is on the meso‐level institutional web of four different political regimes with their distinctive modes of polity regimentation and their structuring effects on Soqotrans’ communal life.     

Going green: Sustainable development as a model of socio‐economic development in European post‐communist countries

The aim of the article is to present a conception of eco‐development as a model for the shaping of a broadly understood lifeworld. It seems to be especially promising in the new social reality of the post‐Communist states, where the lifeworlds have deteriorated badly, both at each spatial level as well as in its biophysical, psycho‐social and technical‐production aspects. First, an interaction model of a lifeworld is presented, followed by a conception of eco‐development with its basic, i.e. social, economic and technological, determinants. The article closes with a list of arguments for eco‐development as both an effective and humanist conception of socio‐economic development in its spatial dimension.     

America as a European power: the end of empire by integration?

Is the postwar partnership between Europe and America now a historical artefact? Much depends on whether the notion of America as a ‘European power’ still holds. The US attained this status through a strategy of ‘empire by integration’, extending its postwar ‘empire’ through negotiation and support for European integration, and envisaging a collectively powerful Europe as fundamental to the health of its most important security alliance. The election of George W. Bush, the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and the war in Iraq are often seen as producing deep ruptures both in American policy towards Europe and the transatlantic alliance. Yet, the embrace of a new US policy of ‘disaggregation’ of Europe is unproven, and in any event unlikely to mark a permanent shift. The US and Europe are surprisingly close to agreement on ends for the international order. Conflict over Iraq has obscured a significant increase in policy cooperation and convergence of strategy in the war on terrorism.     

Disturbing geography: obsessive‐compulsive disorder as spatial practice

This paper explores the spatial practices of obsessive‐compulsive disorder (OCD). It begins by introducing the key elements of the disorder: obsessions and compulsions. It then concentrates on obsessions and compulsions relating to fears of bodily contamination. Such fears necessitate the formation of psycho‐social boundaries in ways that are similar to agoraphobia and other mental‐health problems. Avoiding bodily contamination also involves complex spatial orderings to prevent the illicit movement of contaminants. The vital importance, yet fragile nature, of these spatial formations means that negotiating social space and interactions can be immensely fearful, and the OCD sufferer may retreat to the relative safety of home. However, the domestic is a space of ambivalent safety. Everyday objects become saturated with fear, transforming the experience of ‘home’. Boundaries and spatial orderings are transgressed in the movement of people and objects. Thus, the OCD sufferer is driven to (re)order space constantly, and in doing so often uses everyday materials in inventive ways. We critique the depiction of OCD as irrational and excessive, and set the creative practices of OCD in relation to the ‘slippage’ of Michel de Certeau's distinction between spatial strategies of domination and the art of tactical living.     

The Danube‐Rhine water system as a European regional integration structure

This article explores the role of two large European rivers — the Rhine and the Danube — in the structured development of the European territorial system. The water resources of the Rhine river, the tributaries and connecting canals have created the greatest industrial megalopolis on the continent. In this process and under contemporary conditions, the area is connected with the Danube basin by the newly built Rhine‐Main‐Danube canal. As a result, new structures are forming, having the character of an ecological‐economic system. It is in this direction that part of the European territorial system connected with the Danube is developing. As physical‐geographical and ecological factors accelerate economic development and integrate new economic structures, new opportunities arise. With the link to ecological and water resources, development of the Danube as Europe's newest, prospective zone of expansion is predicted.     

ASEAN as a “Rules-based Community”: Business as Usual

Abstract

In establishing the ASEAN Economic Community, ASEAN political elites emphasised their commitment to the rule of law. The definition of the rule of law adopted in the ASEAN Charter mirrored UN reforms that recognised the rule of law as interlinked with democracy and human rights. This commitment raises questions, given the various tactics employed by the grouping’s authoritarian and post-authoritarian regimes to silence dissent. This article critically assesses this apparent shift in regional governance. It first maps the inclusion of rule of law rhetoric in agreements since ASEAN’s foundation, and then examines the form and implementation of dispute settlement mechanisms. It finds that dispute settlement mechanisms have consistently retained the scope for protracted political and bureaucratic negotiation between disputing parties, and “opt out” clauses that enable their contingent application. These findings undermine claims regarding the development of a “rules-based community”, and indicate the continuation of rule by law rather than rule of law. The emphasis placed on ASEAN’s rule of law reforms by elites suggests, then, the rebranding of this political project in support of the ASEAN Economic Community so as to create confidence for investors in the region’s juridical environment.     

The city as a set of problems: A non‐synthesizing approach to understanding urban places

Neil C. Kalt and Sheldon S. Zalkind. Urban Problems: Psychological Inquiries. New York: Oxford University Press, 1976. v + 543 pp. Author index, subject index. $13.00 cloth, $8.00 paper.