Zapotec innovation in a Mexican village: Building an autonomous mobile network

In 2013, a Zapotec village in the Mexican state of Oaxaca drew international attention when its citizens successfully created an autonomous mobile phone network. Using open‐source software and with technical assistance from an NGO (non‐governmental organization), the people of Talea de Castro obtained antennae, a base station and software that enabled them to build a fully functional mobile network with global reach. This article examines theoretical questions about the nature of innovation and the conditions that might help promote it. It also places the network in broad historical and social contexts. The article reviews the political, legal and technical processes by which villagers were able to create the network. For many years, Talea has been a centre of technological creativity and experimentation. The network might be seen as the village's latest innovation in a centuries‐long process in which creative problem‐solving is integrated with indigenous patterns of mutual aid, reciprocal labour and cooperativism. The article concludes with a discussion of the challenges facing the network and its users.     

Enacting nationalism through youthful mobilities? Youth,mobile phones and digital capitalism in a Lao‐Vietnamese borderland

Mobile phone use has become a defining feature of what it means to be young, and the relatively remote Lao‐Vietnamese borderland area that is the focus of this study is no exception. Drawing on Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities, this article investigates the interplay between the everyday styles of being young, the forces of digital capitalism and the enactment of nationalism. We do this with a focus on ethnic minority youth's appropriation of the mobile services offered by Viettel, the most popular mobile services provider in the study area and owned by the Vietnamese Ministry of Defence. We suggest that the everyday performances of being young, revolving around the mobile phone, are affected by the forces of digital capitalism. We further suggest that the cultural context of Viettel's digital capitalism is embedded in a fabric of Vietnamese nationalism, leading ethnic minority youth, consciously and unconsciously, to enact nationalism through their everyday styles of being young.     

THE HOUSING EXPERIENCE OF CHRONICALLY MENTALLY DISABLED CLIENTS IN HAMILTON, ONTARIO

The chronically mentally disabled (CMD) are seriously disadvantaged in the housing market by reason of disability and low socio-economic status. In many North American cities, the CMD are among the groups most vulnerable to homeiessness. Little attention has been paid to the housing situation and residential history of the CMD despite their supposed effects on coping ability and community tenure. This analysis of the residential experience of CMD clients in Hamilton, Ontario, is part of a larger study examining the factors affecting coping and satisfaction among the CMD in the community. The ghettoization of clients into board and care homes in the inner city is replicated in Hamilton. Serious disadvantage in the housing market is confirmed; clients frequently have to accept unsatisfactory living conditions despite repeated efforts to achieve improvements. In terms of residential mobility, two groups of clients are identified: the highly mobile and the more stable. The strongest predictors of mobility, education, and preference for independent living imply the effects of housing expectations and the difficulties associated with congregate living situations. Strong association is shown between housing satisfaction and composite indices of client coping in the community. Les clients psychiatriques (CP) ont des problèmes sérieux de logement pour des raisons d'incapacité et de statut inférieur au rang socio-économique. Dans plusieurs cités Nord-américaines, les CP sont parmi fes groupes les plus vulnérables dêtres sans logis. ll y a un manque d'égards envers les CP vis-à-vis la crise du logement et du dossier résidential, malgré leurs efforts prétendus de se débrouiller et de demeurer dans la communauté. Cette analyse d'expérience résidentielle de CP à Hamilton, Ontario, fait partie d'une plus grande étude qui examine les raisons qui influent sur la qualité de la vie parmi les CP de la communauté. Le phénomene de l'amalgamation des clients dans des pensions de famille au centre-ville est reproduit à Hamilton. Les problèmes sérieux de logement sont confirmés; les clients doivent souvent accepter des conditions de vie peu satisfaisantes, malgré les efforts répétés pour les améliorer. Au point de vue de la mobilité résidentielle deux groupes sont identifiés: les plus mobiles et les plus stables. fa plus grande correspondance de mobilité, d'éucation et de préférence pour la vie indé-pendante, donne à entendre fes effets d'espérance de logement et les difficultés associees avec une vie en groupes. ll y a une forte association entre la satisfaction du logement et les indices composés du client qui se débrouille dans la communauté.     

Crema Ware and Elite Power at Monte Albán: Ceramic Production and Iconography in the Oaxaca Valley,Mexico

Abstract

During the Terminal Formative, or Monte Albán II period (ca. 100 B.C.-A.D. 200), the Zapotec state was centered in the Oaxaca Valley, Mexico. Reassessment of ceramic data from excavations at the Zapotec capital of Monte Albán, in conjunction with data acquired from recent investigations at a secondary center (Cerro Tilcajete) and a tertiary center (Yaasuchi) in the Oaxaca Valley, sheds light on the production and distribution of elaborately decorated crema- (cream-) paste ceramics. This analysis suggests that such ceramics were produced at Monte Albán as prestige goods and distributed to local elites residing at administrative sites throughout the valley. The distribution of decorated crema vessels—and in particular, bowls bearing incised lightning motifs associated with the preeminent Zapotec deity, Cociyo—via gift-giving networks represented an attempt by elites at the capital to control local elites and integrate them into the regional sociopolitical hierarchy. Data from Cerro Tilcajete and Yaasuchi indicate that local elites at these centers acquired and used some crema vessels. These vessels were fewer in number and less varied than the cremas enjoyed by elites at the capital. Elites at Cerro Tilcajete and Yaasuchi apparently sponsored the local production of ceramics intended to imitate crema vessels. By supplementing the flow of true crema ceramics from Monte Albán, the production of local imitations would have subverted attempts by elites at the capital to control both the distribution of prestigious ceramics and the subordinate elites who desired them. This regional study of ceramics in the Oaxaca Valley illustrates the intersection of economy and ideology in state society, as well as the role that prestige goods can play in the creation and legitimization of—as well as resistance to—institutionalized sociopolitical difftrences.     

‘M GLOW BLUE’: ARCHAEOMETRIC RESEARCH AT MICHIGAN'S FORD NUCLEAR REACTOR

The Ford Nuclear Reactor operated from 1957 to 2003 on the University of Michigan's North Campus in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Over its 45‐year lifespan, the facility played a key role in archaeometric research, fostering early methodological studies using INAA and supporting archaeological materials science investigations of lithics, ceramics, metals and bone. One small part of the FNR's abundant legacy was the initiation of trace‐element studies of Oaxacan ceramics, which are now beginning to shed light on early exchange interactions and the origin of the Monte Albán state in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, between 500 bce and 200 ce .     

Correspondencia privada e historia pública: las relaciones intelectuales de Pedro de Castro,Antonio de Herrera y el Inca Garcilaso

Este artículo analiza la correspondencia de Pedro de Castro y Quiñones con Francisco de Castro y Antonio de Herrera sobre las versiones históricas referentes a los hechos de su padre Cristóbal Vaca de Castro frente al gobierno del Perú. Demuestra que, con el propósito de modificar los términos de la crónica de Agustín de Zárate, Pedro de Castro supervisó directamente el texto de las Décadas de Herrera y, a través del jesuita Francisco de Castro, la versión sobre Vaca de Castro que aparece en la segunda parte de los Comentarios reales. La diferente relación del arzobispo con Herrera y Garcilaso —directa en el primer caso y mediata en el segundo— refleja la dispar autoridad de estos dos historiadores. A pesar de que esta intervención de Pedro de Castro se esconde a los ojos del lector, deja una huella tangible en la coincidencia de Herrera y Garcilaso en la escritura de la biografía del gobernador Vaca de Castro frente a la discrepancia de estos mismos cronistas en otros asuntos indianos. El estudio concluye mostrando la articulación que las historias de las Indias tenían en relación con numerosos problemas históricos, teológicos y políticos que se ventilaban entonces.     

The Impact of State-Controlled Banks on the Russian Banking Sector

A senior Russian economist examines the structure, governance, and balance sheets of state-controlled banks in Russia, which accounted for over 55 percent of the total assets in the country's banking system in early 2011. The author offers a credible estimate of the size of the country's state banking sector by including banks that are indirectly owned by public organizations. Contrary to some predictions based on the theoretical literature on economic transition, he explains the relatively high profitability and efficiency of Russian state-controlled banks by pointing to their competitive position in such functions as acquisition and disposal of assets on behalf of the government. Also suggested in the paper is a different way of looking at market concentration in Russia (by consolidating the market shares of core state-controlled banks), which produces a picture of a more concentrated market than officially reported. Lastly, one of the author's interesting conclusions is that China provides a better benchmark than the formerly centrally planned economies of Central and Eastern Europe by which to assess the viability of state ownership of banks in Russia and to evaluate the country's banking sector.     

The Mobile Politics of Emotions and Social Movement in Oaxaca,Mexico

In light of recent debates between affect and emotions in geography, this article focuses on how the emotional landscape of spatial struggles in Oaxaca articulated people together, thereby generating solidarities and a collective sociality offering the potentiality of interconnection that geographers of affect emphasize. Through an analysis of a women's march, I demonstrate how social movements move people, mobilizing them both physically and emotionally, with effects that go beyond a movement's political demands. Engaging with how emotions do movement‐building work means going beyond a focus on the relational construction of emotions and arguing instead for their collective agency, including their power to transform participants into activists. Highlighting the centrality of spatial struggles and emotions to the shifting, mobile politics of social movements brings into sharp relief the importance of a situated, historical analysis for theorists romanticizing the emancipatory possibilities of a revolutionary transnational articulation between social movements.     

Following America into the second industrial revolution: new rules of competition and Ontario's farm machinery industry, 1850–1930

Despite the hiatus in farm expansion from 1880 to 1900, Canadian‐owned Massey‐Harris became a competitive multinational corporation as American branch plants arrived in Ontario. This equivocal performance in Canada's agricultural implements industry poses problems for explanations of Canada's branch plant economy. Most commentators blame an ill‐conceived National Policy for promoting and protecting inefficient industry and frustrating industrial development. In reviewing their explanations, I use systematic comparisons among plants as well as between the Ontario, New York, Ohio, and Illinois industries. I argue that Canada's National Policy was an effective industrial policy that promoted competitive implement manufacture under the constraints of Victorian era technology. Problems emerged in the 1880s, however, as Chicago firms developed mass production in harvesting machinery, and these became entrenched as gasoline tractor development swept the industry after 1900. Ontario firms struggled, but they outperformed competitors in New York and Ohio, who had been industry leaders in] 880. Canada's branch plant economy in the farm machinery industry was made in Chicago and by mechanical engineers, not in Ottawa and by politicians. En dépit de l'hiatus dans l'expansion du pare agricole entre 1880 et 1900, la société canadienne Massey‐Harris est devenue une grande société multinational compétitive lorsque des usines‐succursales américaines ont fait leur arrivée en l'Ontario. Cette baisse de performance de I'Industrie canadienne de fabrication d'outils et d'engins agricoles pose des problèmes sur le plan de l'explication de l'économie des usines‐succursales canadiennes. Pour la plupart des analystes, cette situation serait due à une politique nationals mal‐conçue. Celle‐ci aurait favorisé et protégé une Industrie inefficace, et ainsi frustré le développement industriel. En passant en revue ces analyses, je procède à une série de comparisons systématiques, d'une part des usines entre elles et, d'autre part, entre les industries de New York, de l'Ohio et de l'lllinois. J'avance que la Politique nationale canadienne etait une politique industrielle efficace qui a su promouvoir une Industrie de fabrication d'outils et d'engins agricoles compétitive dans le cadre de la technologie de l'époque victorienne et de ses contraintes. Des problèmes, qui ont fait leur apparition au cours des années 1880, suite à l'adoption par les sociétés de Chicago de la production de masse des moissonneuses, ont perduré suite à l'arrivée en masse des tracteurs à essence après 1900. Ce fut un moment très difficile pour les sociétés de l'Ontario mais elles réussirent à battre leurs concurrents de New York et de l'Ohio qui étaient leaders de l'industrie en 1880. Dans l'industrie des engins agricoles, le sort de l'économie des usines‐succursales était décidéà Chicago, par des ingénieurs en mécanique agricole, non à Ottawa, par des hommes politiques.     

THE VIRTUALIZATION OF URBAN YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOBILITY PRACTICES: A TIME‐GEOGRAPHIC TYPOLOGY

A time‐geographic approach, including time–space diaries and in‐depth interviews, is used to investigate the daily use and implications of information and communication technologies (ICTs) among a group of Swedish urban youth. We identify individual variations and nuances in ICT‐based practices in our respondents' social and spatial contexts. Using individual cases and detailed time‐geographic trajectories, we demonstrate how daily communicative actions – physical and virtual – are combined and integrated. From this we identify four ideal types of mobility practices: (i) home‐oriented, heavy Internet users; (ii) physically mobile, heavy mobile phone users; (iii) physically mobile, heavy Internet and mobile phone users; and (iv) home‐oriented, rarely mobile people (virtually and physically).     

An Exceptional Response? Security,Development and Civil Society in Spanish Policy after 11‐M

This article considers the ways in which Spanish state institutions responded to the Madrid bombings of 11 March 2004 in the context of the global ‘War on Terror’. It examines three inter‐related arenas of Spanish policy after 9/11 in which security and civil society are invoked in ways that impact upon the country's development agenda toward its southern Mediterranean partners. The first relates to Spain's external relations with its North African neighbours, and in particular the place of migration in shaping these relations over the last decade. The second concerns Spain's political relations with the representative organizations of its own Muslim populations. A third area of analysis pertains to the juridical‐institutional reactions of the state to the 11 March attacks: how have public authorities and civil society been affected and refashioned in the face of jihadist terrorism on the peninsula? The author argues that in each of these domains, the post‐9/11 context generally, and the 11 March attacks in particular, have elicited a securitization of civil society, which has in turn been associated with the country's international relations and domestic politics. Such securitization, however, has only been partially successful, thus vindicating the continuation of ‘politics as usual’ among Spain's state officials and its civil society.     

A REGIONAL ECONOMY,LAND USE,AND TRANSPORTATION MODEL (RELU‐TRAN©): FORMULATION,ALGORITHM DESIGN,AND TESTING*

ABSTRACT RELU is a dynamic general equilibrium model of a metropolitan economy and its land use, derived by unifying in a theoretically valid way, models developed by one of the authors [ Anas (1982) , Anas–Arnott (1991, 1997) , Anas–Kim (1996) , Anas–Xu (1999) ]. RELU equilibrates floor space, land and labor markets, and the market for the products of industries, treating development (construction and demolition), spatial interindustry linkages, commuting, and discretionary travel. Mode choices and equilibrium congestion on the highway network are treated by unifying RELU with the TRAN algorithm of stochastic user equilibrium [ Anas–Kim (1990) ]. The RELU‐TRAN algorithm's performance for a stationary state is demonstrated for a prototype consisting of 4‐building, 4‐industry, 4‐labor‐type, 15‐land‐use‐zone, 68‐link‐highway‐network version of the Chicago MSA. The algorithm solves 656 equations in a special block‐recursive convergent procedure by iterations nested within loops and loops within cycles. Runs show excellent and smooth convergence from different starting points, so that the number of loops within successive cycles continually decreases. The tests also imply a numerically ascertained unique stationary equilibrium solution of the unified model for the calibrated parameters.     

FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT,INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT AND THE CHANGING POLISH PIG INDUSTRY

The world's meat market has had tremendous growth in the past decades. Global meat producers, particularly in developed economies, have grown bigger through expansion, mergers and acquisitions. The livestock markets in less developed countries are particularly the prime targets for investments by these producers. This article looks at foreign direct investment in a transitional economy, using Poland's pig industry as the empirical case study. It argues that such investments not only bring significant changes in the method of producing meat in the host country; they also have particular socio‐political impacts and have thus been met with some level of resistance by local communities. Our study suggests that the relations of foreign firms to the local community are crucial for their long term presence; and these relations are in turn dependent on a gamut of place specific features and the firms' broader corporate philosophy and strategy. In general, foreign firms need to find ways to replicate the kinds of deep social‐economic links between the livestock industry and places that existed in the socialist era. The case studies of American‐owned Agri Plus and Danish‐owned Poldanor illustrate some of the difficulties involved in the foreign investment in the meat industries while demonstrating the viability and possibility of such companies becoming more accepted and welcomed in the local communities.     

The Impact of Mobile Technology on Low‐Income Communities in Lebanon

This article attempts to study the impact of mobile technology, as represented by mobile phones, on low income communities, as represented by farmers in the Bekaa Valley, the largest farmland of Lebanon. It aims to identify areas where the mobile phone has a positive impact on farmers' lives, family, friends, work, finance, and health; and areas where the mobile phone has a negative impact on farmers' lives, in addition to identifying some important associations among the variables. The results show that more than 38 percent of farmers own a mobile phone. The benefits of having a mobile phone are improved work, better income, improved family and social ties, more freedom and independence, better health, and better finance. High cost and accessibility were the two major drawbacks. Owning a mobile phone is associated with education, better work, better income, better health, and better finance. It is independent of gender and income. The study recommends that telecommunication companies in the area should expand their services to low‐income communities, improve coverage, and reduce cost.     

Nuclear Sisyphus: the myth of denuclearising North Korea

Is North Korea ready and willing to give up its nuclear weapons? Proponents of arms control and sustained engagement with North Korea maintain that Pyongyang's desire to acquire nuclear weapons stemmed from ingrained insecurity vis-à-vis the United States or more specifically, the threat that the US poses to fundamental regime security.

However, the primordial source of Kim Jong Il's existential insecurity stems largely from the abnormal, structural idiosyncracies of his regime and not, as many naively believe, the hardline policies of the Bush administration. Accordingly, the Kim Jong Il regime's fundamental dilemma boils down to the fact that the domestic political costs of giving up its nuclear capabilities are just as high as the costs of retaining them.

Debunking the myth that the US, rather than North Korea, poses the greater challenge to South Korean security is as important as ensuring that North Korea dismantles its nuclear arsenal.     

Place,teenagers and representations: Lessons from a community theatre project

Community art is one way the stories and perceptions of typically marginalized community residents can reach a large audience, as well as one means of community development and improvement. This paper draws on the author's ethnographic research and personal experience working for two years with a community theatre programme in an impoverished, multi-ethnic neighbourhood of San Diego, California. Like many community arts programmes, Around the World in a Single Day community theatre project targeted 'at risk' teenagers. The community theatre project provides a vehicle for discussing two aspects of representation: narrative authority and the symbolic economy. The paper argues that community arts programmes can empower the self-representation of marginalized teenagers, but these representations are given meaning in the context of the representation of their neighbourhood. L'art communautaire représente un moyen de faire connître au grand public les récits et perceptions des individus marginalisés, en plus d'offrir des voies d'amélioration et de développement des communautés. Cet article s'inspire des recherches ethnographiques et expériences personnelles de l'auteur au cours d'une période de deux ans àtravailler pour un programme de théâtre communautaire dans un quartier multiculturel défavoriséde San Diego, Californie. Comme plusieurs programmes artistiques communautaires, le projet de théâtre 'Autour du Monde en un Seul Jour' visait des jeunes dits 'à risque'. Le projet de théâtre communautaire sert de tremplin pour discuter deux aspects du processus de représentation: l'autorité narrative et l'économie symbolique. Cet article soutient que les programmes artistiques communautaires peuvent habiliter l'autoreprésentation de jeunes marginalisés, mais ces images acquièrent leur sens dans le contexte des représentations du quartier. El arte comunitario es una de las vías por la cual se puede transmitir las historias y opiniones de las personas típicamente marginas de una comunidad a un público muy amplio. También constituye una manera de desarollar y mejorar una comunidad. Esta papel hace uso de las investigaciones etnográficas y las experiencias personales del autor, el cual pasó dos años trabajando con un programa de teatro comunitoario en un barrio empobrecido y multiétnico de San Diego, California. Al igual que muchos programas de arte comunitario el proyecto 'Around the World in a Single Day' (Vuelta del Mundo en un Solo Día) se dirigía a los adolescentes 'en peligro'. El proyecto de teatro comunitario facilita el debate de dos aspectos de representación: autoridad narrativa y la economía simbólica. El papel sugiere que los programas de arte comunitario tienen la capacidad de autorizar la auto-representación de adolescentes marginados, y estas representaciones tienen sentido en el contexto de la representación de su vecindad.     

Sri Lankan Muslims: between ethno‐nationalism and the global ummah

ABSTRACT. Sri Lanka's Sunni Muslims or “Moors”, who make up eight percent of the population, are the country's third largest ethnic group, after the Buddhist Sinhalese (seventy‐four per cent) and the Hindu Tamils (eighteen per cent). Although the armed LTTE (Tamil Tiger) rebel movement was defeated militarily by government forces in May 2009, the island's Muslims still face the long‐standing external threats of ethno‐linguistic Tamil nationalism and pro‐Sinhala Buddhist government land and resettlement policies. In addition, during the past decade a sharp internal conflict has arisen within the Sri Lankan Muslim community between locally popular Sufi sheiks and the followers of hostile Islamic reformist movements energised by ideas and resources from the global ummah, or world community of Muslims. This simultaneous combination of “external” ethno‐nationalist rivalries and “internal” Islamic doctrinal conflict has placed Sri Lanka's Muslims in a double bind: how to defend against Tamil and Sinhalese ethnic hegemonies while not appearing to embrace an Islamist or jihadist agenda. This article first traces the historical development of Sri Lankan Muslim identity in the context of twentieth‐century Sri Lankan nationalism and the south Indian Dravidian movement, then examines the recent anti‐Sufi violence that threatens to divide the Sri Lankan Muslim community today.