Non-governmental Organizations in Africa: Can They Influence Public Policy?

As non-governmental organizations (NGOs) accumulate experience at implementing development projects, they sometimes attempt to increase their influence by engaging in policy advocacy. This article analyses the organizational conditions under which national NGOs in Africa have been able to influence the formulation of agricultural and rural development policies. Case studies are presented of three African NGOs that have sought, with varying degrees of success, to represent the ‘voice’ of the rural poor to policy-makers. Comparative analysis of these cases leads to the conclusion that policy advocacy is most likely to be effective in organizations that have several key characteristics: an homogeneous membership, a federated structure, a focused programme, informal ties with political leaders, and a domestic funding base.     

The Influence of Building Attributes on Residents' ‘Images of the Past’ in the Architecture of Salt City,Jordan

This paper presents an empirical study conducted in a small traditional city, Salt, Jordan. An investigation was made to examine residents' ‘images of the past’. The objective was to identify building attributes that influence these residents' images. A survey research design using multiple sorting tasks with open‐ended questions was used to identify these building attributes. The images were elicited through the observation of coloured photographs of a sample of older buildings in the city centre. Images of the past were examined within three content areas: knowledge of the past; date of construction; and character of the past of Salt City. The building attributes investigated were: contour, size, shape, surface quality, signage, visibility, use, and significance. The results of the study suggest that older buildings in the centre of the city evoked similar images of the past focused on public or social buildings along with residential settlement building. Attributes relating to images of the past were original use, date of construction, historic signage, and historic integrity. This study presents an approach for operationalising an image of the past.     

‘Suppose They were to Do It in Mexico’: The Spanish Embargo and Its Influence on Roosevelt's Good Neighbor Policy

The US arms embargo during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) can play a key role in our understanding of the transformation of American strategic thought in the late 1930s. The embargo's most well-documented causes are isolationist sentiment, the influence of the Catholic vote in the New Deal coalition and the forceful diplomatic leadership of Britain's Foreign Office in European affairs. Less well known is the importance of Latin America, which was considered throughout the conflict in the debates about lifting the Spanish embargo. This article examines the Spanish embargo and the reasons behind it. It also analyzes the Latin American dimension of Roosevelt's Spanish policy. By doing so it reveals how the perceived threat of Fascist penetration in Latin America influenced US diplomacy regarding Spain. Since that threat was first perceived, Washington began to fear the consequences of a Francoist military victory. It considered that the success of German and Italian military interventions in Spain could encourage similar initiatives in Latin America. The lessons learned in Spain reinforced Roosevelt's Good Neighbor policy in Latin America and, at the same time, also provided a subtle reasoning for abandoning continental isolationism.     

Vices Are Not What They Used To Be: The Archaeological Importance of the Term “Vices” in Argentinean Historical Military Documents of the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century

This article characterizes the sense and use of the word vicios (vices) in historical documents in nineteenth-century Argentina. The term was frequently used among soldiers, indigenous people, and criollos who occupied the border. The “vices” consisted of a range of highly appreciated edible goods (including tobacco, yerba mate [Ilex paraguariensis], and sugar). Documentary sources do not agree what products fall under the term vicios. We propose some archaeological expectations with regard to each of these products.     

Who Sank the Battleship Bouvet on 18 March 1915? The Problems of Imported Historiography in Turkey*

This article traces how differing perspectives on the sinking of the French battleship Bouvet ultimately denied the Ottoman artillery credit for the success. The official British account would attribute the defeat to ‘floating mines’ and to the ‘luck’ of the Turks in March 1915 first, and later to the Nusret’s minefield when they published their official history in 1921. Following the Great War and the occupation of Istanbul, the Ottoman officers who participated in the naval operations revised their own accounts and imported the British official narrative of the event. In understanding this overlooked case using newly disclosed Ottoman and German accounts, we can analyse how the losers’ historiography is vulnerable to overt influence from the victors’ hegemonic official historiography.     

The Effect of Hedonic Migration Decisions and Region-Specific Amenities on Industrial Location: Could Silicon Valley Be in South Dakota?

This paper analyzes the effect of hedonic migration decisions and regional amenities on industrial location. Labor-intensive firms bifurcate into companies that follow the workers completely to the most attractive places, and companies which engage in a trade-off between \"following\" and \"compensation for disamenities.\" In the latter case, regional amenities induce three distinct location patterns: (a) a concentration of firms where the level of amenities is rapidly changing, (b) a gradual change of industrial composition at intermediate locations, and (c) a concentration of specific industries at the periphery of high-amenity areas. These patterns explain some of the controversial empirical findings about regional amenities and migration.     

How Enlightened Can a Monk Be? The Efforts of Eighteenth‐Century German Benedictines to Reform Monastery and Church

This article investigates how German Benedictines in the eighteenth century tried to reform monastic life and Catholic theology by adopting various aspects of Enlightenment lifestyle and thought. It demonstrates the intellectual diversity that existed in this religious order and the order's intensive dialogue with contemporary culture.     

Tackling Social Exclusion: The Role of Social Capital in Urban Regeneration on Merseyside — From Mistrust to Trust?

In recent years community involvement and increasingly social capital have become central themes in debates and policies surrounding urban regeneration. This paper attempts to contribute to these debates by reviewing the role of social capital in the context of a major regeneration initiative, namely the European Union-sponsored Objective One Programme, currently underway on Merseyside. The paper argues that it is important to show how social capital is formed through the 'scaling-up' of local associational relationships, networks and institutions, to wider power structures and relations. Trust amongst participants is central to this process. Two areas on Merseyside are used as case studies to illustrate the argument. The paper concludes that the active development of trust and the social relationships surrounding it needs to be central to the process of urban regeneration.     

The ‘Triple R’ Approach on the Restoration of Archaeological Dry Stone City Walls: Procedures and Application to a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Oman

The ‘Triple R’ approach on the restoration of dry stone walls, using recognizable, reversible and respectful constructive techniques is here illustrated. A set of restoration procedures are explained and applied to a UNESCO World Heritage site in Al-Baleed (Salalah, Sultanate of Oman) in the ‘Land of Frankincense’. The procedures were adapted in an innovative way to take into account the climate features of the Indian Ocean area (specifically, the effects of the monsoon season). All the restoration procedures aimed at conserving the site’s original architectural features by using only suitable stones and materials found on-site. Specific procedures have been adopted to consolidate walls, gates, foundations and sloping surfaces. Simple on-site mechanical tests and evaluation methods have been developed for a quick assessment of the safety level of the restored walls to ease future archaeological excavations. The application is related to a waterfront side of the ancient city built around the ninth century and added to over the next five centuries. These restoration procedures allowed for further archaeological excavations with new findings is here described.     

The evolution of elite high-rise condominiums in India: from the global to the neo-colonial?

The article focuses on the neo-liberal model of elite residence in India—the high-rise, high-density condominium. The growing presence of this model as an expression of social mobility indicates the critical role played by this new housing type in relation to the socio-cultural transformations advanced by neo-liberalism. This article, then, is an architectural inquiry into this new residential type within the contemporary setting of globalisation. I employ the idea of physical and social thresholds as a conceptual tool to investigate the progress of this spatial and cultural typology, following its injection into the Indian architectural landscape. I explore the multiplicity of physical thresholds within its spatial planning as a signal of manifest social relationships of increasing complexity. The two case studies in the global node of Mumbai explored in this research represent the beginning and the peak of development of this gated housing type. The methods used include spatial analyses of the design of the condominiums, participant observation and a reading of marketing material. The findings reveal that what started as a global residential type devoid of socio-cultural overlays has now evolved into a residential form with deeply entrenched cultural hierarchies echoing many attributes of colonial elite-status building.     

The Impact of AIDS on Rural Households in Africa: A Shock Like Any Other?

In areas where HIV prevalence is high, household production can be significantly affected and the integrity of households compromised. Yet policy responses to the impact of HIV/AIDS have been muted in comparison to outcomes of other shocks, such as drought or complex political emergencies. This article looks at the reasons for the apparent under–reaction to AIDS, using data from Zambia, and examines recent calls to mitigate the effects of AIDS at household level. Critical consideration is directed at proposals relating to community safety nets, micro–finance and the mainstreaming of AIDS within larger poverty alleviation programmes. It is argued that effective initiatives must attend to the specific features of AIDS, incorporating both an assault on those inequalities which drive the epidemic and sensitivity to the staging of AIDS both across and within households. A multi–pronged approach is advocated which is addressed not just at mitigation or prevention, but also at emergency relief, rehabilitation and development.     

The changing abundance of backed artefacts in south-eastern Australia: a response to Holocene climate change?

The timing of the introduction, proliferation and decline of backed artefacts in Australia has been much debated. In south-eastern Australia, after initially appearing at least 8500 years ago, backed artefacts greatly increased in number between 4000 and 3500 years ago to the extent that they are found in numerous sites and are recorded in large numbers in individual sites from that time. From about 1500 years ago they declined markedly in number and had seemingly disappeared by the time of British colonization. Models explaining their proliferation advance the proposition that increased backed artefact production was triggered by heightened foraging risk and/or social re-organisation brought about by a change in climate to a regime which was cooler and drier than any other time during the Holocene combined with intensified ENSO climatic conditions. Our study develops this hypothesis by inferring the use of backed artefacts at Mussel Shelter in the Sydney Basin through an integrated use-wear and residue analysis. These inferences provide new insights into the nature of the evolutionary changes in tool production and use in response to the period of altered climatic conditions.     

From here to eternity?: The practice of knowledge transfer in dispersed and co-located project organizations

This paper extends theoretical and empirical debates on knowledge transfer practices in geographically dispersed project teams using a range of communications media. It presents quantitative data comparing work interactions between dispersed and co-located teams in five international, project-based firms. It shows that contrary to conventional wisdom, their respective practices are similar for many work activities such as search and routine information exchange. However dispersed team members validate, verify and consult differently to the respective co-located teams. Qualitative data from interviews and observation then illustrates typical interactions using the differing means and media available to the observed project teams, such as task decomposition and emergency corrective work. Due to an unfortunate oversight one of the references in this article is incomplete. It can be found here.     

The ‘return to Europe’: intellectual debates on the global place of Czechoslovakia in the interwar period

In the East Central European context, the phrase ‘return to Europe’ has been used mainly in the period after 1989, referring to political, economic and social changes as well as mental relocations towards a ‘Western’ system. However, debates about the national whereabouts on a mental map – whether one was part of Eastern, Central or Western Europe – also abounded in the years following the founding of the nation-states after the First World War. Concentrating on Czech discourses on the national whereabouts both in a European and a global perspective in the years preceding and following the great upheaval of 1918, this article traces the changing Czech national identity, ranging from a self-perception as a ‘small nation’ in the Habsburg Empire to a European power with colonial ambitions after the foundation of the Czechoslovak republic, and finally to the acknowledgement in the 1930s that these ambitions could not be met. The study is based on sources ranging from Czech travelogues mainly to Africa and Asia, but also South America, to economic writings and colonial brochures, which offer a broad range of debates on the role and location of both the Czech nation and the Czechoslovak state both in Europe and the world.     

A Matter of Courtesy: The Role of Soviet Diplomacy and Soviet “System Safeguards” in Maintaining Soviet Influence on Czechoslovak Science before and after 1968

In 1969, a few short months after the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, Sergei I. Prasolov, advisor to the Soviet Ambassador in Prague, informed František Šorm, President of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, at a formal meeting that he welcomed Šorm's suggestion to intensify scientific exchange between Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union. Šorm politely declined this offer. Behind the veneer of diplomatic courtesy on the part of both actors, a real drama was taking place. Šorm and the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences had actually never formulated such a request. To the contrary, since the late 1950s the academy had repeatedly pointed out that the Soviets were incapable of coordinating scientific activities in the Eastern Bloc. The Soviet system of academic cooperation within the Eastern Bloc had already begun to collapse after the Geneva Summit of 1955, where the Soviets opened the door to international collaboration across the Iron Curtain. Yet it was only in the late 1960s that the Soviets realized that while they dominated large-scale international collaboration, they had lost control of internal developments within the Eastern Bloc.     

The great divide? Notions of racism in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany: new answers to an old problem

ABSTRACT

One of Michele Sarfatti’s greatest accomplishments has been to challenge the notion that there was a fundamental difference between the biological racism predominant in Nazi Germany and the ‘cultural racism’ of Fascist Italy. I examine how this dichotomy took shape and the meaning it acquired over time. My basic argument is that this division is the result of dialogue between Italian and German population experts during the interwar period, and that making a sharp distinction between a ‘German’ and an ‘Italian’ style of racism helped them to construct their own identities. In other words, the debate on racism was a vehicle for defining what it meant to be a ‘true’ Nazi or Fascist. In this way, differences in racist ideology can be understood as a product of struggles over meaning. Ultimately, my aim is to de-essentialize the meaning of race in research on both Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.     

High‐speed railway to success? The effects of high‐speed rail connection on regional economic development in China

We find that high‐speed railway connection in China has led to a reduction in GDP per capita for connected peripheral prefectures. We use the least‐cost path‐spanning tree network to address the nonrandom route placement issue. We find that the reduction of GDP per capita is driven by significant contractions in capital input, industrial output, and skilled labor outflow. We present evidence to support a trade‐based channel in light of falling transportation costs between peripheral and metropolitan regions. Our finding highlights the importance of the cost of human transport.