The role of culture and community in frontier prairie farming

Frederick Jackson Turner described the American frontier as the great democratizer, a place where people from diverse backgrounds came together, shook off the shackles of their former cultures and blended into the American nation. Detailed study of nineteenth-century rural settlement in the Upper Middle West reveals a more complex picture. A marked spatial clustering of groups from the same country, province and even parish is readily observed. Often these groups were bound together in a close-knit community through the agency of a common church. This paper traces through four decades the farming behaviour and economic fortunes of several such groups who settled on the prairie of Kandiyohi County, Minnesota. The findings indicate that the ethnic community, especially where it consisted of people from a relatively restricted district in the old country, did help to make the frontier experience of its people rather different from that of their neighbours.     

Toward a relational economic geography

In this paper, we argue that a paradigmatic shift is occurringin economic geography toward a relational economic geography.This rests on three propositions. First, from a structural perspectiveeconomic actors are situated in contexts of social and institutionalrelations. Second, in dynamic perspective economic processesare path-dependent, constrained by history. Third, economicprocesses are contingent in that the agents' strategies andactions are open-ended. Drawing on Storper's holy trinity, wedefine four ions as the basis for analysis in economic geography:organization, evolution, innovation, and interaction. Therein,we employ a particular spatial perspective of economic processesusing a geographical lens.     

On economic geography in economic theory: increasing returns and pecuniary externalities

Our objective is twofold. First, we show why there is a spatialquestion in economic theory – why a free competitive marketis unable to cope with agglomeration and regional imbalancein the absence of market distortions. Second, using a new andsimple model, we review what has been accomplished in economictheory during the 1990s when due allowance is given to increasingreturns, while market structure is given by monopolistic competition.     

The G8 in a changing global economic order

The G8 has rather crept up on our consciousness as an agency of global governance. It was brought into being in 1975 in order to give western leadership to the global political economy at a time of uncertainty and drew Russia into its activities in order to demonstrate and symbolize the triumph of western capitalist liberal democracy over its rival Soviet system. In that sense the G8 constitutes the club of the winners of late twentieth century history. But it has long been beset by problems of legitimacy and efficiency. Some of the leaders of the current G8 states also recognize that global politics has moved on a long way since the settlements of 1945 and 1989 and increasingly acknowledge the need to address that changing reality. They recognize that some other powerful countries have grown up and that it is now in the interests of the dominant countries to accommodate a limited number of these new powers within the structure and norms of the contemporary governance of globalization. In this spirit the G8 has lately sought to incorporate Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa into its affairs, dealing with them as ‘outreach’ partners within a process that has been dubbed the ‘G8 + 5’. For their part, these early twenty‐iirst‐century winners will have to show that they are willing to work within the framework of western leadership. That is what the ‘G8 + 5’ process is testing out. Only when, and if, these tests are passed will the formation of a G13 become a politically realistic possibility.     

Related variety and economic development: a literature review

Since the introduction of the related variety concept in 2007, a number of studies have been undertaken to analyse its effect on economic development. Our review of 21 studies makes clear that most studies find support for the initial hypothesis that related variety supports employment growth, though some studies suggest that the growth effects of related variety may be specific to knowledge-intensive sectors only. From the review, we list a number of further research questions regarding methodology, the role of unrelated variety, different forms of relatedness and the effect of related variety on knowledge production and entrepreneurship.     

Origin of palaeofluids in a normal fault setting in the Aegean region

The province of Burdur (SW Turkey) is seismically an active region. A structural, geochronological, petrographical, geochemical and fluid inclusion study of extension veins and fault‐related calcite precipitates has been undertaken to reconstruct the palaeofluid flow pattern in this normal fault setting in the Aegean region. A palaeostress analysis and U/Th dating of the precipitates reveals the neotectonic significance of the sampled calcites. Fluid inclusion microthermometry of calcites‐filling extension veins shows final melting temperatures (T_m ice) of 0°C. This indicates pure water, most likely of meteoric origin. The oxygen isotope values (?9.8‰ to ?6.5‰ VPDB) and the carbon isotopic composition (?10.4‰ to ?2.9‰ VPDB) of these calcites also show a near‐surface meteoric origin of the fluid responsible for precipitation. The microstructural characteristics of fault‐related calcites indicate that calcite precipitation was linked with fault activity. Final melting temperature of fault‐related calcites ranges between 0 and ?1.9°C. The oxygen isotope values show a broad range between ?15.0‰ and ?2.2‰ VPDB. Several of these calcites have a δ¹⁸O composition that is higher or lower than the oxygen isotopic composition of meteoric calcites in the area (i.e. between ?10‰ and ?6‰ VPDB). The δ¹³C composition largely falls within the range of the host limestones and reflects a rock‐buffered system. Microthermometry and stable isotopic study indicate a meteoric origin of the fluids with some degree of water–rock interaction or mixing with another fluid. Temperatures deduced from microthermometry and stable isotope analyses indicate precipitation temperatures around 50°C. These higher temperatures and the evidence for water–rock interaction indicate a flow path long enough to equilibrate with the host–rock limestone and to increase the temperature. The combined study of extension vein‐ and fault‐related calcite precipitates enables determining the origin of the fluids responsible for precipitation in a normal fault setting. Meteoric water infiltrated in the limestones to a depth of at least 1 km and underwent water–rock interaction or mixing with a residual fluid. This fluid was, moreover, tapped during fault activity. The extension veins, on the contrary, were passively filled with calcites precipitating from the downwards‐migrating meteoric water.     

Catholic-Confucian Mortuary Practices in a Rural Manchurian Cemetery

Historical Archaeology - Catholic missionaries were active among rural populations in Manchuria, in northeast China, around the turn of the 20th century. Their presence influenced everything from...     

Restudy in economic anthropology

T. Scarlett Epstein. South India: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. New York: Holmes and Meier, 1973. xv + 273 pp. Maps, tables, bibliography, and index. $15.00.     

Bohemia and economic geography

This paper examines the geography of bohemia and the relationshipsbetween it, human capital, and high-technology industries. Theunderlying hypothesis is that the presence and concentrationof bohemians in an area creates an environment or milieu thatattracts other types of talented or high human capital individuals.The presence of such human capital in turn attracts and generatesinnovative, technology-based industries. To explore these factors,this paper introduces a new measure—the bohemian index—thatdirectly measures the bohemian population at the MSA level.Statistical research examines the relationships between geographicconcentrations of bohemians, human capital, and high-technologyindustry concentration. The findings support this hypothesis.The geography of bohemia is highly concentrated. The resultsindicate positive and significant relationships between thebohemian index and concentrations of high human capital individualsand between the bohemian index and concentrations of high-technologyindustry. The relationship between the bohemian index and high-technologyconcentrations is particularly strong.     

Rural Growth Points and Rural Industries in Zimbabwe: Ideologies and Policies

A Rural Service Centre which provided all basic infrastructure, had a strong residential component and offered a wide range of services would automatically attract rural non-farm activities. This is the term applied to the whole range of activities connected with trading, manufacturing, construction, transport and government and other services. improved infrastructure is the key to more rural manufacturing. The deficiency in manufacturing may therefore be expected to right itself if given the necessary Government support through the provision of infrastructure. (Whitsun Foundation, 1980: 60–1; emphases added). Rural Service Centres ‘do not offer any major form of non-agricultural employment other than trade and certain jobs connected with the provision of services for agricultural communities’. (Hanratty and Heath, 1984:27)     

Inward investment and economic development in Poland

This paper summarizes results of a research project funded by the Overseas Development Administration of the UK Government. Its aims were to explore the nature and extent of foreign direct investment in Poland, and to assess the extent of integration of such investment with the indigenous economy. The research involved interviews with Polish government ministries, banks, development agencies, inward investors and indigenous firms. It concludes that there are numerous financial and technical obstacles to indigenous business development. The majority of inward investors aim to serve the Polish and other Central and Eastern European markets rather than simply selling cheaply produced products to the West. Moreover, most have already developed significant local sourcing from Polish suppliers.     

Urbanism and economic development in a pre-industrial context: the case of southern Russia

Russia's southern frontier in the seventeenth century was continuously menaced by the nomadic Tatars who inhabited the open steppe grasslands. In this situation the Russian government attempted to harness all the frontier's sources to the cause of defence by founding a series of military towns which could control and direct the process of settlement. Government control, however, did not extend to the widespread illegal migration and settlement of runaway serfs. In a later period, as the Tatar threat subsided and colonization continued, the importance of most of the towns diminished and a system of secondary central places arose as trade expanded. But the oldest towns retained their importance in this changing social and economic situation, becoming higher-order central places for long-distance trade and, increasingly, centres for agricultural processing.