The new water architecture in southern Africa: reflections on current trends in the light of 'Rio+10'

UN Secretary–General Kofi Annan has identified water and sanitation as a principle area of focus for the forthcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD). It is fitting that this meeting is being held in Johannesburg, as water resources management issues are of primary importance to the southern African region. There is a new water architecture being developed in the region, one that hopes to correct abiding structural inequalities of access between and among states, communities and peoples. Part of this new water architecture includes an enhanced role for the private sector and 'the market' in the provision and management of this crucial resource. This is a role that many feel will exacerbate rather than alleviate historically derived problems of underdevelopment. It is a role, therefore, that may undermine many of the positive developments that have taken place in the region over time. If regional leaders are interested in sustainable and equitable water resources management, they must be prepared openly to debate this issue with all interested parties not only at the WSSD, but also in the region and beyond.     

Robert Frost's ambivalence: Borders and boundaries in poetic and political discourse

Phrases from Robert Frost's well-known poem “Mending Wall” are often used to frame discussions of borders in academic and political discourse. Used by some to justify the construction of physical barriers, others have used excerpts from the poem to fundamentally question the truism it appears to project. In light of recent interest in borders, our paper returns to Frost's full poem and its contexts in order to define, theorize, and critically mobilize what we take to be a useful ambivalence regarding fences. We use Frost's formulations to address the universal difficulty of moving beyond the borders of our daily lives, whether imposed at the edges of the nation-state, inscribed in our social relations, or inferred within the formal dimensions of a poem. Working at the crossroads of political geography, psychoanalytic theory, and literary analysis we argue that addressing the central role of borders in our lives and Frost's deep ambivalence about fences and borders is a useful step in any political and aesthetic movement forward. We cannot be “good neighbors” in other words or even good co-inhabitants until and unless we acknowledge that we are ambivalent not only toward the Other, but also about the very concept of borders and boundaries itself. Ideas presented about ambivalence provide border scholars and political geographers with an opportunity to re-evaluate our positionality and recognize how our own humanity intersects with that of others.     

Recent research in the archaeology of architecture: Beyond the foundations

Although architectural remains have always been a principal focus of archaeological investigation, research on such remains, particularly small-scale structures, has taken on new importance because of the information they can offer on human behavior. This article provides a review of recent trends in the archaeology of architecture (mainly domestic in nature), including current work in household archaeology and spatial patterning analysis of architectural remains, and discusses the new models and methodologies being generated to interpret these remains. The main areas covered in this review include the New World, Mesoamerica in particular, Europe, and general focus on recent work in the Near East.     

建筑装饰艺术的奇葩

山西省灵石县静升镇王家大院,是90年代新发现的清代民居建筑群。王氏家族,自元仁宗皇庆年间在静升镇定居后,经过450个春秋的苦心经营,终于由农到商。由商到官,发展成巨族大户。王氏家族于康熙三年建起拥翠巷,康熙四年建起锁瑞巷,雍正四年在西堡子建起大小两堡,乾隆年间建起红门坚、东南堡、下南堡及钟灵巷王氏住宅群。这五堡三巷一条街,总面积达匕万平方米,规模宏大,十分豪华。除建筑本身外,做为附属的装饰部分,内容丰富,技艺请港,是民间艺术的一朵绚丽的奇葩。十家大院的建筑装饰,最突出的基石雕、砖雕、木雕艺术。这些雕…     

Noncontiguity and political architecture: the parliaments of small island states

Territorial noncontiguity creates distance problems, and thereby promotes a need for noncontiguous countries to accommodate regional or otherwise distinct interests that emanate from or are linked to territorial divisions. For a population of 31 small island states, many of which display territorial noncontiguity, this study explores to what extent geography is reflected in the political architecture of legislatures that these political units choose to apply. Specifically, the study searches for possible effects of noncontiguity on federalism and bicameralism as well as the extent to which parliaments are recruited by means of apportionment and appointment. Concerning federalism and bicameralism, no discernible patterns emerge. Concerning apportionment and appointment, however, noncontiguity makes a difference. These techniques are used by a majority of the noncontiguous island states, but not (Mauritius being by virtue of its social heterogeneity a distinct exception) by contiguous island states. Processes of constitution-making in the island states have indeed been concerned with challenges that originate from the partitioning of space, and although geography does not of course explain the totality of politics, it does affect, to some extent at least, the motives, inducements, calculations and behaviour of constitution-makers as political architects.