British National Dailies and the Outbreak of War in 1914

The intention of this article is to cover a clear gap in the present literature with regards to the First World War, exploring the British National Press and their portrayal of how Britain entered the conflict. Themes explored include: the reaction of the press to the Archduke's assassination; the impact of foreign embassies on press reporting; predictions of the Austrian Ultimatum; reporting in the final days of peace; and finally the continuous and at times controversial link between politicians and the press, a particularly topical issue at present.     

Urban planning in Russia: towards the market

The article discusses the recent transformation of the Russian system of urban planning from the socialist system to a market one. The focus is on new problems of the Russian planning system, the relationship between the new and old systems, and the role of the bureaucracy and participation. A case study of the city of Moscow develops the subject at a metropolitan level. It is argued that Russian planning in transition has been planning in crisis and it is only now becoming an effective and pluralistic social institution. The recent revival of planning has been much dependent on Russia's regions; a diversification of planning systems throughout the country is expected.     

The Patriot Game: Russia and the First World War

D.C.B. LTEVEN. Russia and the Origins of the First World War. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1984. Pp. 213. $25.00 (US); LEWIS H. SIEGELBAUM. The Politics of Industrial Mobilization in Russia, 1915–1917: A Study of the War-Industries Committees. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1984. Pp. xix, 312. $27.50 (US); WTLLIAM OLEASON. Alexander Guchkov and the End of the Russian Empire. Independence Square, Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society, 1983 (Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Volume 73, Part 3, 1983). Pp. 90. No price available.     

Social Relations and War Remembrance: Second World War Atrocities in Rural Tuscan Villages

This article addresses the issue of how long‐term memory of extreme conditions is socially transformed. It focuses on elements of the social structure and pre‐war habitus that might help understanding of the divided memory of massacres that were perpetrated by the Nazis in three rural Tuscan villages between 1943 and 1944. Within the “mnemonic communities”, discrepancies arise since some of the villagers paradoxically blame the partisans instead of the Nazis. An attempt is made to trace current representations of historical events in the framework of traditional social institutions and political life of these small villages in time of crisis. Battles over memory are seen as a twofold process—that is, as part of “internal”, intra‐village relations as well as a form of reaction toward the “external” world of which they feel victims. The article argues that long‐term memory of past political violence is strictly bound up with local power relations.     

Monumentality in Urban Design: The Case of Russia

A prominent American urban geographer and observer of the Russian urban scene provides an overview of grand planning and monumental urban design in Russia and the former Soviet Union through the lens of four themes outlined in a previous paper by Larry Ford (2008). In the process, he adds two more themes relevant to Russia and the former USSR: town building and architecture intended to define and legitimize state power, and the shaping or remodeling of society to reflect a regime's ideology. Noting the obstacles in the West to getting large urban projects planned, accepted, and completed, he argues that monumental urban landscapes appear to demand some degree of sustained, centralized, authoritarian leadership. The latter has been present in Russia and the USSR during much of the past millennium, including the present, but the emergence of new commercial/corporate forces in urban land development also bears scrutiny in studies of the processes promoting urban monumentality. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O18, R14, R52. 10 figures, 44 references.     

Policy Responses to Urban Shrinkage: From Growth Thinking to Civic Engagement

More and more European cities are confronted with population decline in a structural sense. This development of “urban shrinkage” has different causes, but similar effects: the city's hardware, software and mindware deteriorate. In this paper, we explore and assess policy strategies to respond to urban shrinkage in a European context. Four strategies are identified: (1) trivializing shrinkage, (2) countering shrinkage, (3) accepting shrinkage and (4) utilizing shrinkage. We suggest that accepting shrinkage by improving the quality of life for the city's existing residents is the most suitable and sustainable strategy. Dealing with shrinkage is a complex urban governance process that asks for a mental transformation from growth to shrinkage as well as regional rather than local thinking. Moreover, due to the fiscal burden of shrinkage, city governments will be increasingly dependent on the willingness of citizens to help. Civic engagement, however, is not something that can be simply dictated. Therefore we conclude that the authorities of Europe's shrinking cities should first enable their citizens to care for their community before asking them to do so.     

Correction in the Countryside: Convict Labour in Rural Germany 1871-1914

Over the course of the Empire demand for labour in the countrysideand penal reform together created the conditions for a greaterdeployment of prisoners, workhouse inmates and young offendersin agriculture. Farming on site, and especially leasing offenders,were the most cost-efficient ways of detaining men. Agriculturalwork was also regarded as key to their rehabilitation. It servedto equip inmates upon release for the sector of the economymost in need of workers. ‘Outside work’ away fromthe institution was also seen as an intermediate stage in theprisoner's sentence before release. Two developments in thecharitable sector complemented this correctional strategy: theemergence of a network of workers’ farming colonies whichacted as half-way houses for ex-prisoners after release, andex-offender employment programmes run by prisoner welfare societies,channelling ex-offenders towards agricultural employment. Despitethese efforts to reintegrate offenders, re-offending rates remainedhigh. Penal authorities either attributed this to the incorrigibilityof some inmates, or pushed for longer sentences. In some casespenal and medical authorities were inclined to re-interpretthe criminal behaviour of repeat offenders as behaviour symptomaticof mental illness, and some inmates were transferred to asylums.In the discourse surrounding the failure of reform the argumentthat the exclusionary and punitive nature of the prison andworkhouse régime actually worked against rehabilitationheld little sway, nor the argument that high re-offending ratescould be attributed to the vagrancy and begging laws which criminalizedsystemic poverty and homelessness. Absent here was any understandingthat the life offered following release, working as ancillaryworkers or hands on the estates, bore too striking a resemblanceto work in agriculture during detention. This in itself wasone major reason why many ex-offenders directed into agriculturalemployment after release refused to stay and work.