The necessity of “corporatism”: The case of the Hawke labor government

“Consensual Corporatism” under the Hawke Labor Government is a process of policy decision‐making engendered both by a reaction to perceived past Labor policy‐making failures and the context of the collapse of the long post‐war economic boom.

This paper argues:

1. 1) that the perceptions of economic crisis in Australia in 1983 were accurate and that the Hawkeist consensus model was a correct (though not really corporatist) reaction to the policy requirements of the mid‐1980s;

2. 2) that, primarily because of the fragility of the institutional‐cum‐political base of the Hawke “consensual corporatist” policy process it will take an unusual combination of continuous good management and good luck for the model and its progenitor government to survive beyond the next election.

     

Stable isotope analysis on human remains from the final Early Holocene in the southern Puna of Argentina: The case of Peñas de las Trampas 1.1

In this work are presented the results of isotopic analyses made on bone remains of human individuals (n?=?6) from the southern Puna of Argentina dated to the final Early Holocene (ca. 8230–8000 BP). They were found in structures located in Peñas de las Trampas 1.1, a rockshelter at 3582 m.a.s.l. in Antofagasta de la Sierra, in the southern Argentinian Puna. They contain multiple secondary burials. Bone fragments were recovered from at least six individuals, three in each structure. Stable isotopes of Carbon (δ¹³C) and Nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) analysis were aimed at defining aspects related to the palaeodiet of the six individuals within the palaeo-economic subsistence spectrum typical of hunter–gatherers. It is worth noting that these human remains are among the earliest from North-Western Argentina, where funeral practices are related with the transportation of certain anatomical parts. The palaeodietary inference considers, on the one hand, the extreme aridity of this geographical area and its impact on the isotopic ecology. And, on the other, it takes into account the fact that four of the six individuals under study were breastfed infants. The results are in agreement with the expected values of the period, which has been characterized as the beginning of the arid Altithermal.     

Radiocarbon dating and the “old wood” problem: The case of the Hohokam chronology

Many archaeological chronologies, including that of the Hohokam in southern Arizona, are based on a series of radiocarbon dates on wood. This paper argues that because of variability in rates of wood decay processes (in the environment and in systemic context), such archaeological chronologies are potentially biased towards excessive antiquity by an old wood problem and must be reassessed. Following the theoretical insights of Dean (1978), this paper sets forth principles and procedures for relating radiocarbon dates to cultural events. Emphasis is placed on identifying and taking into account the formation processes of (1) the dated specimens and (2) the deposits that yielded them. This methodological framework is applied to Hohokam radiocarbon dates, and a chronology much shorter than the original Gladwin-Haury formulation is supported.     

Commentary: Philip Hirsch's “The shifting regional geopolitics of Mekong dams”

Understanding the complex shifting geopolitics of the Mekong at a time when many networked arrangements and economic flows are disrupting earlier forms of regulation must involve a multidimensional view of geopolitical practices across time and engagement with their representations. This commentary on Hirsch (2016) underscores the importance of the local struggles and people whose voice is often silenced. For a multidimensional view, it is particularly important to include voices that too easily become omissions.     

Real‐estate in Russia from socialism to the market economy: The case of St Petersburg

In Russia, the real‐estate question is one of the key points in the transition from the Soviet system towards the market economy. Whereas the privatization of businesses and accommodation has been widely undertaken since 1990, the privatization of buildings and especially of land is still limited, the State and town councils remaining the principal land and property owners. This situation, which leads to very distinctive relations between public and private agents, is slowing the expansion of private property investment considerably and inhibiting the setting up of a genuine real estate market.     

Tourism and the “villagers without history”: the case of Yubeng

In recent years, Tibetan Yubeng Village, located in southwest China, has become a hot spot for studying community tourism development in China's minority areas. Studies of Yubeng Village have been made on two tourism benefit distribution systems that are dominated by the community: the accommodation income distribution system and the caravan rotation system. Analysis and discussion of researchers are based on the formation, change, and influence of these two systems. However, different researchers have different interpretations of some fundamental facts, whether in terms of the time of the systems’ changes or in terms of the specific contents of such changes. Based on firsthand interview records and auxiliary secondhand materials obtained from field investigation, this study mainly takes “time of system change” as an example to discuss the reasons for these differences and advises that researchers should be more rigorous when facing those fundamental facts.     

The Idiom of the Other: Three Francophone Writers of “The Fringe”

This paper is based on the linguistic and cultural experiences of three francophone writers: Ahmadou Kourouma (Abidjan, Ivory Coast), Suzanne Dracius (Martinique), and Barry Jean Ancelet (Louisiana, United States). Their testimonies are discussed in the opening section. A reading of Jacques Derrida's Monolingualism of the Other; or, The Prosthesis of Origin, enables us to analyze the experiences of these three writers, “whose relation to the French language is as vexed and varied as Derrida's own Algerian inheritance” (in the words of an anonymous reviewer). It leads, in the next section, to a discussion of the impossibility of absolute monolingualism demanded by “linguistic imperialism,” the multiplicity inherent in any language, and the violence of a language which claims to be unique, while serving some ideology or power. In the last part, I address the double interdict to which Derrida believes education must respond, and the double entitlement for which it is responsible.     

Reconstruction of regional and national population using intermittent census-type data: The case of Portugal, 1527–1864

Abstract

We offer a new methodology for the construction of annual population stocks over the very long run. Our method does not require the assumption of a closed economy, and can be used in situations in which local annual gross flows are obtainable. Combining gross flows with intermittent census-type data, it is possible to arrive at local, regional and national population stock estimates at annual frequencies. We provide an application to early modern and nineteenth century Portugal, using a large sample of parish-level statistics up to the first modern census of 1864. All six major regions of the country are considered.     

The south pacific ‘experiment’: Reflections on the origins of regional identity

Abstract

When colonial administrators decided to encourage a sense of unity among the members of the emergent élite of their Pacific Island territories in the late 1940s, they regarded their project as novel. Rather than a sense of tapping a pre‐existing affinity, it seemed that what was being attempted was social engineering on a grand scale. The first South Pacific Conference of Pacific Island representatives held at Nasinu, Fiji, in April‐May 1950, was seen by European officials and observers as an ‘experiment’.

The attempt to forge a sense of regional unity was seen as pushing against the perceived gulf between Melanesian and Polynesian cultures and as expecting too much in the way of conference skills from ‘undeveloped’ societies. But the ‘experiment’ was considered necessary for other important post‐war goals. Although the Nasinu conference is to be seen broadly as an experiment in the promotion of trusteeship, or ‘native welfare’, principles, there was by no means agreement on its ultimate purposes. For some it offered the best (if risky) chance of minimising United Nations interference in the continuation of colonial control, for others a way of ensuring the demise of empire by serving the needs of self‐determination. Finally, the promotion of a sense of region among Pacific Islanders was seen by some as part of an experiment in keeping the region from Communist influence.     

Unequal in life? Human remains from the Danish excavations of Tylos tombs

The Danish excavations in Bahrain of Tylos graves at Sar and from Pylon T158 resulted in the recovery of seventeen skeletons. Apart from a single infant, all remains were of adults with females dying, on average, at a younger age than males. Among the pathological conditions identified, porotic hyperostosis (frequently linked to anaemia) was common. Infectious lesions were observed including two cases tentatively diagnosed as tuberculosis. The only other pathological condition noted was a possible case of skeletal fluorosis. This range of disease is comparable to other skeletal samples dating to the Tylos period. Measurements also indicate that these samples are similar to other Tylos remains from Bahrain. A feature of this period is the disparity in health between males and females, evidenced by differences in robusticity and height. This disparity is more marked than in other periods and it is argued that it is evidence of a greater inequality on the island during this period.     

“The artifice of eternity”: The Wanderings of Oisin and the Byzantium poems

Yeats’s poetry and drama centre on conflict, and crucially, on the clash between the mortal and the eternal. In this essay, I focus on the way in which The Wanderings of Oisin foreshadows and informs the treatment of eternity in Yeats’s later Byzantium poems. The Wanderings of Oisin explores the intensity of human longing for the eternal despite our time-bound nature, prefiguring his later impassioned though analytical Byzantium poems. Although the Byzantium poems seem initially to glorify eternity at the expense of human life, this essay traces the complexity of Yeats’s desire. Previous criticism has understated the extent to which Yeats’s poetry actively resists the siren song of eternity. The Byzantium poems problematise the eternity that they seem to desire, and this article reveals them as inflected by the way in which The Wanderings of Oisin questions the value of the eternal realm in the light of mortal heroic values. The “intensity, solitude, defeat” of the artist are inevitable, but there is a victory of sorts won from the poet’s deliberate inability to commit to any version of the eternal that preclude his own power and humanity. Yeats’s poetry runs the gamut between versions of desire that express an overweening desire for resolution even as they retain their resistance to any single pure state of being, if any such state is possible.     

The end of the territorially-sovereign state? The case of crime control in the United States

Numerous commentators argue that the nation-state is an endangered species. External forces of globalization and internal forces of social differentiation, many suggest, are significantly weakening the state's capacity to regulate its subject population within its jurisdictionally-defined space. Such an argument is often made in the specific case of crime control. The spread of international communications networks and the growth of international policing suggest that single-state crime control efforts will increasingly be insufficient, the growth of private security and community-oriented crime reduction efforts suggest that the state is surrendering crime control to other domestic agencies. This paper examines the specific case of crime control in the United States to argue that the putative weakening of the state is not in fact occurring. When examined more closely, suggested evidence of decreased state power vis-a-vis crime turns out, if anything, to demonstrate the opposite. The analysis demonstrates that, in the American case especially, the state remains startlingly relevant when it comes to efforts to combat crime and maintain order. Because police agencies are bureaucratic institutions that must demonstrate their relevance to ensure their continued health, and because the state's broader legitimacy is linked to the provision of security, the public crime control apparatus promises to remain robust for the indefinite future.     

River landscapes: The origin and development of the printed river map in the Netherlands, 1725–1795

Abstract

River management in the province of Holland in the eighteenth century was co‐ordinated by a Hydraulic Department which worked closely with local, regional and other provincial authorities to maintain river beds and channels. To perform its function efficiently, all the Hydraulic Department's main river maps followed general precepts laid down as early as 1725 by the surveyor Nicolaas Cruquius (1678–1754). The basic principle was to create clear maps with uniform scale and design which contained only the topographical information relevant to the work of the department. Experiments with depth contours were made, and profiles and diagrams were included in order to portray as accurately as possible the invisible natural processes which influenced the river landscape. The cartographical model thus established was followed consistently throughout the eighteenth century.