A Relocated Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?

The idea that the public needs enlightenment is generally formulated by people who consider themselves in possession of the enlightenment the public supposedly needs. Herein lies the paternalism problem of popular enlightenment. Some seventy years after Immanuel Kant formulated his famous answer to the question What is enlightenment?, a Norwegian philosopher reaches for his pen on a similar errand. The Norwegian context, however, is different, and the reflection takes a different turn. The questions become: What is popular enlightenment? Who is in a position to decide what kind of enlightenment ‘the people’ need and to define what is enlightenment as opposed to darkness? The text takes a closer look at the Norwegian reflections, published as three articles in two newspapers in 1852 and 1855. The newspaper articles are written by the philosopher Marcus Jacob Monrad (1816–1897). He finds support in Kantian insights when reflecting upon how a concrete initiative for the enlightenment of the public, in which he himself participates, should be understood. Monrad addresses the problem of paternalism in popular enlightenment, and he does this by using his reason publicly, which is what is required, according to Kant, in order for man to escape from tutelage.     

The Two Kingdoms: The Norwegian Seamen's Church in London 1865–1905

The Norwegian church in London began its life as a mission to Scandinavian seamen in 1868, after an evangelical society for this group had been founded in Bergen in 1864. Throughout the period covered, the former was involved in extensive cooperation with the other Nordic missions in the British capital. Yet it was always a congregation rather than just a mission and, as time went by, it became more self‐consciously Norwegian too. Evidence presented here suggests the mission was a place of worship for its domiciled compatriots before 1872, when the church building was completed. In common with many foreign Protestant churches in London, the Norwegian congregation experienced some conflict. There were restrictions on it owing to Norway having entered a forced union with Sweden in 1814. The Swedish church saw itself as catering for both nationalities and would not brook competition from what was officially a service for Scandinavian seamen. The clergy were not natural supporters of Norwegian nationalism. But as their country became more self‐assertive within the union from 1880, they began demanding enhanced rights for their church. It was only when Norway had unilaterally declared its independence in 1905 that the clergy became full‐blown adherents of this.     

HOW CAN YOU PLAY WHEN YOUR HOUSE IS ON FIRE? THE NORWEGIAN SPORTS STRIKE DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR

The article considers the story of the Norwegian sports strike during the Second World War. What kind of resistance does the story reveal? What was the effect of a boycott of leisure activities like sports? The Norwegian sports organizations, unlike other international sports organizations, came to see themselves as part of the resistance movement against the Nazi regime during the German occupation from 1940 to 1945, using non-violent, civil disobedience as their weapon. Unprecedented historically and internationally, this meant that Norwegian sportsmen and women, for four and a half years, stopped participating in any way in sport. The boycott comprised sportsmen and spectators, regardless of whether the contestants were friends or foes, Allies or Nazis, Norwegians or German. Based upon previous and recent research the article contends that the sports strike can be considered an effective act of civil disobedience. It demonstrated in a visible way that civil resistance was possible, while the German and Nazi authorities sought to promote sports as a means of creating an impression of normality. Finally, the story of the sports strike can be read as a tale of the limitations of totalitarian regimes.     

Debating the moral and economic foundations of a democratic polity

From around the middle of the 18th century, agrarian reforms came on the agenda in most countries of western Europe. Although Norway’s economy was not manorial like that of Denmark and much of the rest of the continent, a debate emerged on how to improve Norwegian agriculture as well. Contrary to what the idealized picture of the typical Norwegian peasant might make us believe, the Norwegian right of redemption, odelsretten, was at the heart of these discussions. This article explores the differing opinions voiced over the ancient familial right from the viewpoint of intellectual history, drawing on the European historiography on political languages and the rise of commercial society and arguing that they should be interpreted as different responses to the societal changes caused by the economic growth in Norway from the middle of the 18th century.     

What are armed forces for? The changing nature of military roles in Europe

European armed forces are currently undergoing a profound series of shifts in relation to their core roles. These changes are increasingly challenging long-held assumptions about what armed forces are for and how they should be structured and organized. This article argues that these changes have not primarily occurred in response to an objective, functional reassessment of the nature of the threat, as is assumed in much of the civil—military relations literature. Instead, new military roles are emerging as a consequence of domestic and international socio-political infl uences that shape states' perceptions of what their armed forces should look like and the purposes they should serve.     

Norwegian and Soviet/Russian World War II Memory Policy During the Cold War and the Post-Soviet Years

Abstract

World War II has played a significant role in using “memory” in all kind of “memory politics” in Europe as well as in the USA. Using examples from Norway and the Soviet Union, later the Russian Republic, this article shows how successfully, but also how contradictorily, historical events can be used as memory politics. We will also see what “memory culture” and “memory policy” is predominant in circumpolar Norway and the Soviet Union/Russia after World War II. We are introduced to the concept of “memory agents”, the producers and directors of “memory politics”. The case is first and foremost the battle of Narvik in Norway in the spring of 1940. We also take a look at the circumpolar borderland between Norway and the Soviet Union during World War II, where the German “Gebirgsjäger” from the Narvik front regrouped and continued their assault on Soviet Union in Murmansk County from the summer of 1941. In what way were the war events useful in the post war era, and how could they directly affect Soviet–Norwegian relations during the Cold War? In addition we ask how memories contributed to the justification of different approaches to the foreign policy in both countries. Besides, the article demonstrates how the memory policy of World War II was affected after the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union in Norway and Russia, respectively.     

Geographical Perspectives on Producer Service Industry Research in Australia

In contrast to the situation in North America and Europe, producer services research in Australia has largely focused on their international role rather than their domestic one. The growing internationalisation of the Australian economy in the last decade has been closely interrelated with the progressive internationalisation of producer service industries. International banking and finance as well as trade-related services have had significant urban impacts in major cities. Australia's growing linkages with East Asia are having impacts on the geography of service industries. However, little is known about the urban and regional implications of economic restructuring in these industries. There are important urban and regional implications resulting from the externalisation of services from manufacturing, as well as from the shedding of labour on the part of large service industry organisations. Similarly, little attention has been given to urban and regional implications of producer services by policy makers either at a federal or state government level.     

Market Creation by Leninist Means: The Regulation of Financial Services in the People’s Republic of China

Abstract

Within the process of China’s transition from a centrally-administered to a more market-oriented economy, financial services have played a very special role, but in a counter-intuitive way: what looks like Western market economics turns out to be a Leninist regulatory model. Even as international financial service providers and regulatory communities are invited to play a role in the creation of a Chinese market in financial services, the Communist Party has strengthened its control of top personnel, the judiciary and the media. The reform of the central bank and the establishment of technically independent regulatory agencies seemed to have taken China down the path of OECD economies. The model of a very specific post-regulatory state with Chinese characteristics, however, has not fully incorporated the notion of private authority. Such an acceptance would pose a threat to the CCP monopoly on political power. The attempt to use only semi-private organisations to develop financial markets undermines the long-term stability of the political and economic order.     

Book review

The article discusses some features of the political culture of late medieval Norway by focusing on the broader strata of the people and their political influence. To what extent could these groups express their own political goals and act to achieve them? The point of departure is the 1448–50 struggle for the Norwegian throne, the claimants being the Danish‐German Kristian I and the Swedish Karl Knutsson (Bonde). The Norwegian Council of the Realm was divided into two ‘parties’, both of which recognized the importance of the common people's support and acceptance of their candidate. However, the article argues that there were interesting differences in the two parties' tactics and rhetoric towards the common people. It was no coincidence that it was the supporters of Karl who mobilized the common people in the political struggle. Several central political, social and geographical arguments made by supporters of Karl were not employed in favour of Kristian. The supporters of the latter had to base their tactics on constitutional law and tradition. Nevertheless, it was concrete, contemporary political and economic interests that motivated the representatives of the common people, when they could not have a domestic king, to want Karl rather than Kristian,. This contemporary situation overshadowed a possible underlying constitutional conservatism among the common people. The popular representatives fought for what has been called ‘The Norwegian System’ in order to defend their own interests.     

Rude Accountability: Informal Pressures on Frontline Bureaucrats in Bangladesh

This article is about ‘rude’ forms of accountability — the informal pressures used by citizens to claim public services and to sanction service failures. Rude accountability is characterized by a lack of official rules or formal basis and a reliance on the power of social norms and rules to influence and sanction official performance. The article draws on evidence from Bangladesh, a state which has not reformed its social sector governance, to explore when and why poor citizens resort to ‘rude’ accountability, whether they have a comparative advantage in the use of informal mechanisms, and whether these work, in terms of gaining better service. It asks what informal accountability mechanisms imply for governance reform in social services, and discusses lessons for other ‘unreformed’ states like Bangladesh.     

Neoliberalism and Suburban Employment: Western Sydney in the 1990s

During the past 15 years metropolitan planning strategies of the NSW state government have done little to address the spatial distribution of either employment or labour market equity within the metropolis. In the fast‐growing outer western suburbs, the government has focused on attracting business investment to increase the stock of local jobs and to improve employment ‘self‐sufficiency’— a dominantly neoliberal policy framework. This paper explores a widening gulf between the reality of outer urban change and this policy framework by considering changes in the location of jobs and in the employment experiences of residents in Greater Western Sydney (GWS). Evidence is drawn from census journey‐to‐work data (1991–2001). While holding a majority of manufacturing jobs in Sydney, GWS also experienced continued growth of jobs in service industries during the 1990s. Yet the relative importance of employment in the city's fast‐growth finance and business services sector still lags well behind that of inner and northern parts of the city. The focus on growing the regional stock of jobs has not addressed problems of labour market access faced by residents of particular localities and the goal of employment self‐sufficiency has not delivered greater equity to outer suburban labour markets. A focus on sufficiency of access to employment for residents of GWS draws attention not only to regional stocks of jobs but also to the provision of social infrastructure and state‐provided services to outer suburban populations as they continue to expand.     

Aesthetic cosmopolitan,national and local popular music heritage in Melbourne’s music laneways

There are currently few examples of popular music being officially celebrated as heritage in Australia. Interest in this area is growing, however, and this paper examines how Melbourne, the capital of the state of Victoria, has recently named three laneways after rock artists, namely, AC/DC Lane, Amphlett Lane and Rowland S. Howard Lane. Using interview and observational data collected at the laneways, we demonstrate that these spaces respectively reflect aesthetic cosmopolitan heritage (AC/DC Lane), national heritage (Amphlett Lane), and sub-national heritage (Rowland S. Howard Lane). The number of visitors to these laneways varies greatly across the sites, and reflects the national and international success of the artist commemorated. The laneways’ success as commemorative sites is also related to intersections of globally circulating ideas about what constitutes ‘rock’, what urban spaces should look or feel like, and how heritage is expected to be enacted (especially for tourists). Within this field, there are specifics relating to the Australian music industry that appear to find clear reflection in the sites chosen and their level of success as memorial spaces.     

Employability of German Geography Graduates: The Mismatch between Knowledge Acquired and Competences Required

The employability of university graduates is a concern in higher education as labour markets change more and more rapidly. This is of particular relevance for multi-faceted subjects such as geography. Studies on employability have to consider to what degree a university education helps graduates start a career. The results of a survey of 257 geography graduates of JLU (Justus Liebig University) Giessen, Germany, indicate that the traditional curricula did not necessarily prepare German geographers adequately for their jobs. The graduates possess more knowledge than required but lack important competences and transferable skills that the job market demands. This may be partly remedied by the introduction of project-oriented classes.     

The Spatial Distribution of Wages: Estimating the Helpman‐Hanson Model for Germany

Abstract.  Using German district data we estimate the structural parameters of a new economic geography model as developed by Helpman (1998) and Hanson (1998 , 2001a ). The advantage of the Helpman‐Hanson model is that it incorporates the fact that agglomeration of economic activity increases the prices of local (nontradable) services, like housing. This model thereby provides an intuitively appealing spreading force that allows for less extreme agglomeration patterns than predicted by the bulk of new economic geography models. Generalizing the Helpman‐Hanson model, we also analyze the implications for the spatial distribution of wages once the assumption of real wage equalization is dropped. If we no longer assume real wage equalization we find support for a spatial wage structure as well as for the relevance of the structural parameters of the theoretical model.     

Economic Globalization and Institutions of Global Governance: Comments and Debate (I)

Reading Keith Griffin is like listening to a Frenchman presenting his ideas in three parts and ten minutes. It is clear, brilliant, and a delight for the ear, but once it is over you scratch your head and wonder what exactly the meaning of it all was. In the recent article by Griffin published in this journal ( Griffin, 2003 ), there were two instances where I scratched my head. The first instance was when he pleaded in favour of mobility of the factor labour, not only of labour in general, but of unskilled labour in particular in order to reduce global income inequalities. The second instance occurred when he argued in favour of a compulsory tax and transfer mechanism in replacement of the old‐style foreign aid that is ‘nearly obsolete’.     

Korean unification: a solution to the challenges of an increasingly elderly population?

South Korea experienced below replacement fertility for the first time in 1983, which also marked the point from which fertility rates continued to decline over the next 20 years to reach a low of 1.2 in 2003. In spite of recent pronatalist policies, the fertility rate has remained near this level and has not increased appreciably. The reasons for sustained low fertility in South Korea are complex and solutions remain elusive. One option that has been suggested is reunification with North Korea, which could address the eventual decline in the population and mitigate the increasing proportion of the elderly. Although the conditions surrounding the German reunification experience were vastly different than what Korea will likely undergo, it is informative to look at Germany as a guide to the demographic parameters of reunification. Three projection models for 2015–2050 are presented; even the highest fertility models show that reunification will not be the answer to population restructuring already underway in South Korea as a result of sustained low fertility.     

Regulating unemployment the Continental way: the transfer of municipal labour exchanges to Scandinavia 1890–1914

Statistical knowledge, insurance and labour exchanges constituted the principal elements in the policies developed to handle the new social problem of unemployment in the decades before 1914. Political transfer, the exchange of ideas, problems and policies between reformers all over the modern world, contributed heavily to the making of unemployment. This article analyses the introduction of labour exchanges, a German innovation, in the Nordic countries. Special attention is given to the different settings, both extra- and intra-Nordic, for transfer and cross-learning. The aspiration that the municipal labour exchange, providing a free and impartial service to both employers and workers, would reduce unemployment and social tensions explains its swift introduction.     

Increasing Role of Services in Competitive Power and Innovativeness of Firms and Industrial Clusters

The aim of this paper is to discuss the importance of different types of global services for industrial firms and clusters in terms of their economic competitiveness and innovative performance. The theoretical debates argue that globalization, deregulation and the new production organization make it necessary to use global services that are supplied easily with the help of new telecommunication technologies. The existing empirical studies provide some supporting evidence. However, they also indicate that global service firms can be attained by only smaller numbers of industrial firms and clusters. Still, in-house services besides temporal and informal mechanisms are important to meet the needs of the specialized services, even for the firms that try to become a part of the global production system. The paper focuses on three main questions: “What types of global services are becoming crucial for manufacturing firms and what type of services are still local and national? Is there a significant difference between the characteristics of firms that use the same type of services? To what extent is having access to global services important for the innovativeness of industrial firms and clusters? This paper looks for the answers to these questions based on existing case studies as well as this study of three industrial clusters in Turkey. The findings indicate that there is not a perfect match between theory and empirical evidence and there is a need for more refined theoretical discourses on industry–service relations.     

Form,function, fiction – translations of technology and design in product development

This article is a case study of the design and development of a Norwegian crockery series for institutional households – the 1962 Figgjo 3500 Hotel China. It investigates how this product represented a decisive break with the conventions of postwar Norwegian design and manufacture. The onset of international free trade meant export or die for the manufacturing industry. The elitist aestheticism so prevalent in the so‐called Scandinavian Design movement was abandoned in favour of an ideology remarkably akin to what was at the German Ulm School of Design called scientific operationalism. The paper also analyses how the manufacturer sought to portray this product: first, it was inscribed as science incarnated, and the material morality reigned supreme. But as society's faith in science took some serious blows in the course of the 1960s and modernist design idioms were partly forsaken in the 1970s, the engineered tableware became the fashioned tableware as trends tamed technology. These translations of technology, design, identity and consumption tell the story of how an artefact is constantly in a state of transformation – on both sides of the factory gate.     

Human flourishing,tourism transformation and COVID-19: a conceptual touchstone

Abstract

As the planet remains in the grips of COVID-19 and amidst enforced lockdowns and restrictions, and possibly the most profound economic downturn since the Great Depression, the resounding enquiry asks—what will the new normal look like? And, in much the same way, tourism aficionados, policy makers and communities are asking a similar question—what will the tourism landscape, and indeed the world, look like after the pandemic? As casualties from the crisis continue to fall by the wayside, the rethinking about what an emergent tourism industry might resemble is on in earnest. Many are hopeful that this wake-up call event is an opportunity to reshape tourism into a model that is more sustainable, inclusive and caring of the many stakeholders that rely on it. And some indicators, though not all, point in that direction. In line with this, the concept of ‘human flourishing’ offers merits as an alternative touchstone for evaluating the impacts of tourism on host communities. Human flourishing has a long genesis and its contemporary manifestation, pushed by COVID-19 and applied to travel and tourism, further expands the bounds of its application. Human flourishing has the potential to offer more nuanced sets of approaches by which the impact of tourism on host communities might be measured. The challenge remaining is how to develop robust indices to calibrate human flourishing policy successes.