A SUMMARY OF THE GLASGOW CONFERENCE ON SOVIET ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES AND PRACTICES

A meeting of the Advisory Panel on a major research project entitled “Soviet Environmental Policies and Practices: Most Critical Investment Priorities” was convened in Glasgow, Scotland on March 12 and 13, 1988. More than a dozen specialists from Britain, West Germany, and the United States participated. The meeting was hosted by the Institute of Soviet and East European Studies of Glasgow University. The results are summarized below.     

COMPACTNESS AND ELECTORAL BOUNDARY ADJUSTMENT: AN ASSESSMENT OF ALTERNATIVE MEASURES

Spatial compactness has been proposed as a suitable criterion for assessing whether electoral boundaries reflect partisan interests. Although several different measures of spatial compactness have been developed, only limited efforts have been made to compare and evaluate them in the context of electoral redistricting. This paper assesses alternative spatial compactness measures and applies conceptually appealing measures to the provincial ridings proposed by British Columbia's Royal Commission on Electoral Boundaries (1988).     

PERCEPTIONS OF ENERGY PROBLEMS AND THE ADOPTION OF CONSERVATION PRACTICES IN EDMONTON AND CALGARY

The success of government efforts to stimulate energy conservation among the public ultimately depends on understanding patterns of energy consumption, perceptions of energy resources, and the adoption of conservation practices. These issues were addressed in a survey of residents of Edmonton and Calgary. Most respondents dismissed the seriousness of energy problems at the provincial level, although energy scarcity at the national and global scales was widely recognized. Conservation behaviour was characterized by a narrow range of adjustments perceived and adopted, attributable largely to patterns of resource perception and socio-economic factors.
La réussite des efforts gouvernementaux pour stimuler les conservations d'energie dépend, en dernière analyse, d' une compréhension des schémas de la consommation énergétique, desperceptions des resourcesénergétiques, et del'adoption d' habitudesconservatrices. On a interrogé les habitants d' Edmonton et de Calgary ace sujet. La plupart des réponses ignorent la gravité des problèmes d'énergie au niveau provincial, quoiqu'elles admettent la précarité des ressources énergétiques à l' échelle nationale et mondiale. L' attitude conservatrice se distingue plus particulikrèment à partir d' ajustements limités reliés géneralement aux schémas de perceptions énergétiques et aux facteurs socio-économiques.     

ACCESSING PAST BELIEFS AND PRACTICES: THE CASE OF LEMNIAN EARTH*

Lemnian Earth, a medicine in the shape of a stamped clay tablet (sphragis) from Lemnos, northeastern Greece, was much valued in antiquity and in the post‐medieval period as an antidote to poison and a treatment for other ailments. Although it was among the first archaeological materials to be subjected to chemical analysis (in 1807), there is still no clear understanding as to what made Lemnian Earth an effective medicine. We argue that Lemnian Earth, the artefact, was not the same as Lemnian Earth, the raw material. We suggest a composition for the artefact by scrutinizing the documentary evidence for its properties and by considering the geochemical processes that led to the formation of the raw material and the ritual relating to its extraction. The study of the latter highlights the need for archaeological materials scientists to recognize ritual as a possible manifestation of physical and chemical processes carried out within the framework of past beliefs and practices.     

TAX AND FINANCIAL POLICIES FOR THE HOUSING MARKET OF THE 1980s

The imbalance in the age structure of the U.S. population has created conditions for heavy demand and consequently pressures for rising relative prices in the market for owner-occupied single family housing in the 1980s and 1990s. Working in reverse, the unbalanced demographics may well lead to the falling relative price of housing around 2010, the period in which the baby boom generation will be retiring and may wish to liquidate its housing investment. Changes in housing policies during the 1980s could help offset the anticipated costs associated with the swings in demand pressures in the housing market over the next forty years. Current favorable tax and financial policies toward homeownership encourage both the overconsumption of housing and the overinvestment in housing as a retirement asset. Tax and financial policies could be changed to neutralize the attractiveness of owner-occupied single family units relative to alternative types of housing units. To avoid overbuilding for the future, policies could encourage the efficient use of existing housing resources through intergenerational turnover, upgrading of units and neighborhood improvement, and condominium-style conversion of multiunit structures from rental to owner-occupancy. Finally, tax and financial policies toward investment could encourage the baby boom generation to diversify its retirement assets outside of housing.     

BLOCK GRANTS AND URBAN POLICIES: IMPLETATION AND IMPACT

In the 1970's, the federal government has made greater use of block grants to encourage subnational units to pursue national goals. Using two jurisdictions—St. Louis City and St. Louis County—and two block grant programs—Community Development and Comprehensive Employment and Training—as case studies, this essay describes how differences in local polities affects policy implementation and policy impact. The tentative conclusion is that maintaining local autonomy and achieving national goals are far from mutually compatible.