The entanglement of the heritage paradigm: values,meanings and uses

This paper explores the ways in which heritage as a practice and concept has been used and diverse meanings and values ascribed to heritage by different claimants, using the medieval site of Ani in eastern Turkey as a case study. On one hand, the site marks a point of conflict between Turks and Armenians, with the heritage and the past of the site playing an important role for identity making and construction of national narratives, as well as developing what might be seen as the authorised heritage discourses for both sides. On other hand, the local community around the site has developed a different relationship to the site Ani because of their daily relationship with its landscape and built environment. This has revealed meaning and values embodied in the site that are beyond the national and political level. This paper considers to what extent the built environment in particular, can play a role in identity making and add to the political tension. It also examines how the value and meaning of a heritage site can be distinct for local communities from national political meanings and uses, and, as a consequence, can be used to resist authorised heritage discourses.     

Inequalities,responsibility and rational capacities: A defence of responsibility-sensitive egalitarianism

This article aims to defend responsibility-sensitive egalitarianism by arguing for the rational capacities-based principle of responsibility as a plausible conception of an agent's responsibility for inequalities caused by his or her choice in responsibility-sensitive egalitarianism. I show that the rational capacities-based principle of responsibility is not only philosophically defensible as a conception of genuine choice, but also promising enough to ward off two common worries which cast doubt on responsibility-sensitive egalitarianism (qua luck egalitarianism): first, the rational capacities-based principle of responsibility allows the assignment of differential degrees of responsibility to rational agents in proportional terms, which may make it echo the adverse effects of their childhood environments. Second, its proportional construal essentially allows that nobody possesses a full degree of rational capacities. This enables responsibility-sensitive egalitarianism to refute the harshness objection.     

Social Policy,Inequalities and the Battle of Rights in Latin America

Targeted social policies and other more universal forms of social protection have shaped (the shifts in) the politics of popular support in Latin America. Since the early 2000s this has led to a tendency towards the election of left-leaning governments, stimulating stronger political pressure for more extensive redistribution. Yet despite a wide range of cash transfers, subsidies and other social policies, the ‘post-neoliberal’ ideal of welfare did not reshape the political and relational powers of citizens in the ways necessary to redress the structural determinants of poverty and inequality across the region. This article reveals a ‘dark side’ of social policy in Latin America, arguing that targeted and precariously funded welfare regimes are creating tensions between the socio-economic and ecological spheres that undermine inclusive citizenship and democracy.     

Renzi: the government,the party,the future of Italian politics

On 22 February 2014 President Napolitano appointed Matteo Renzi to the office of President of the Council of Ministers (the correct title according to the Italian constitution). Since then the 39-year-old secretary of the Democratic Party has launched a series of institutional, economic, and social reforms. Claiming that it was of the utmost importance to scrap the old political class and to put Italy back to work, Renzi has already produced significant but, to say the least, controversial changes, as well as many clashes within his party and in the relationship between Italy and the European Union. This article will explore where the changes in his style of governing and in his party will lead the politics of Italy.     

Continuities in Transition: Ethnicity,Language and Labour Market Inequalities in Kyrgyzstan

Ethno-racial and linguistic boundaries have major implications for socio-economic well-being throughout the world, yet their specific effects vary greatly across contexts. The countries that were once part of the Soviet Union have seen dramatic transformations yet also exhibited remarkable continuities from the socialist era. This article contributes to cross-national evidence on the roots and expressions of ethno-racial socio-economic inequalities and on nation building and nationalism in the post-Soviet context. It uses data from two identically designed nationally representative surveys conducted in Kyrgyzstan in 2011 and 2017 to investigate patterns and trends in ethnic and linguistic disparities in employment by occupational type and economic sector and in earnings among men and women. The authors find that despite government policies to promote the advancement of the nation's titular majority, Kyrgyz, and to encourage the use of its language, the ethno-linguistic economic inequalities inherited from the Soviet era — privileged positions of the European-origin minority and of Russian-speaking Kyrgyz — were still potently present in the earlier survey. While variations in types of occupation and employment sectors tended to diminish between the two surveys, the ethno-linguistic differences in earnings remained very pronounced, even after controlling for other factors. The authors relate these findings to the extant scholarship and reflect on their implications for our understanding of post-socialist transitions.     

Migration,age, and education: a cross-sectional analysis of geographic labor mobility in Japan

"This paper presents some new empirical evidence on the determinants of prefecture-to-city migration in Japan, using a model based on the human capital-search theoretic approach." Several hypotheses relating the rate of migration to age, education, distance moved, and earnings are tested, and the applicability of the theoretical framework to the analysis of labor migration in Japan is evaluated. Data are from the 1970 census and the 1968 Employment Status Survey.     

Services in Russia: past,present, and future

In spite of ambitious modernization plans of the government, structural change in Russia is not proceeding in the direction of highly developed economies. Part of the lag in the tertiarization process can be explained by the fact that, as during the Soviet period, the role of services in the economy is still ignored, particularly regarding innovation. This paper aims to contribute to the analysis of the evolution of services in Russia since the mid-1990s and its future prospects by compiling data from the World Bank, the International Labor Organization, Rosstat, and the World Input–Output Database. Two complementary and novel perspectives are adopted: a production system perspective and a spatial perspective. Regarding services in the Russian production system, comparison of interindustry linkages reveals that, in addition to traditional relevant activities like wholesale/retail trade and transport and communications, business services are acquiring great importance as production process inputs. Concerning the spatial perspective, we observe a greater presence of non-market services in less densely populated federal districts, while strategic service activities are highly concentrated in the most dynamic ones. Analysis of major Russian cities confirmed the trend of business services concentrating in densely populated and highly innovative cities. In brief, services, and in particular business services, can be a means to boost innovation and growth in Russia, but more attention from political leaders is necessary for these activities. The modernization process should abandon its current “high-technology industry myopia” and take into consideration the innovative, and especially, the knowledge-diffuser role, that services can exert.     

Securitisation through re-enchantment: the strategic uses of myth and memory

ABSTRACT

This article is an investigation into the attempt by the federal Conservative government of Stephen Harper to securitise the Canadian polity through re-enchantment. Through the strategic use of discourses and the shaping of the regime of signification, the article explains how the Harper government attempted to re-enchant national myths of Anglo-conformist nationalism, militarism and loyalism. Using discourse analysis of government documents and speeches, the article examines three sites of discursive intervention: (1) National Museum and Archive policy, specifically, the renaming of the Canadian national museum; (2) the militarisation and royalisation of national institutions and commemorations, notably the renaming of the Canadian navy and (3) the privileging of anglo-centric and loyalist tropes in the performance of citizenship rituals, and associated with this, reforming Citizenship legislation. The article concludes with an analysis of the reasons for the overall failure of the Conservative government’s attempts to securitise through re-enchantment.     

Borderland spaces for learning partnership: opportunities,benefits and challenges

This paper uses case studies and secondary literature to critically examine how learning spaces inhabited by geographers might be used productively as borderland spaces for learning partnership. Borderland spaces are novel, challenging, permissive and liminal, destabilizing traditional power hierarchies. In these spaces, students gain confidence in accepting agency in learning, moving towards critical thinking and reflective judgement, thereby developing self-authorship. They acquire new knowledge, skills and facets to their identity. They also feel anxiety as they take on new roles and adopt a partnership ethos. Faculty must guide students to support their successful navigation into and out of borderland spaces.     

Transport costs: measures, determinants, and regional policy implications for France

We develop a methodology to accurately compute transport costs.Based on the real transport network, our measure encompassesthe characteristics of infrastructure, vehicle and energy used,as well as labor, insurance, tax and general charges borne bytransport carriers. Computed for the 341 French employment areas,road transport shipments and the period 1978–1998, thisnew measure is compared to alternative ones such as great circledistance, real distance, or real time. We conclude that theseproxies do a very good job in capturing transport costs in cross-sectionanalysis. However, important discrepancies limit the possibilityof using them in time series analysis. Moreover, our measureallows us to identify the policies that most impact transportcosts. We show that transport technology and market structureare responsible for most of the transport cost decrease. Infrastructureimprovements only condition the spatial distribution of thegains. Finally, some implications for researchers and regionalpolicy makers are derived.