Sticky words? Towards a theory of rhetorical path dependency

Speech matters. Political actors are defined by what they say as much as by what they do but, with each rhetorical choice, they also narrow the range of rhetorical options open to them for the future. This paper examines the idea of path dependency, a well-established concept in the field of policy studies, and applies it to the study of political rhetoric. It argues that words are sticky, leaving political leaders caught between the desire to utilise fresh and engaging rhetoric to explain new policy choices and the reality that they cannot shake off the wording of their previous promises. In advancing a theory of rhetorical path dependency, the paper builds on the insights of both discursive institutionalism and rhetorical political analysis to suggest that whilst ideas are indeed vital to the shaping of institutions, the arguments that give those ideas shape can themselves be constrained by earlier choices.     

The failure to formulate a national science policy: Israel's Scientific Council, 1948–1959

This article analyzes the failure to formulate a national science policy in Israel's early years by tracing the administrative genealogy of the Scientific Council (1948–59), which was established to manage and coordinate civil applied scientific research in Israel. The failure of the council is analyzed as part of wider debates concerning the future of the academic and scientific research systems and the implementation of Israeli state ideology (mamlakhtiyut) in this period. The story of the council sheds light on important aspects of the formation of Israeli higher education and scientific research institutions and on the close but complex relations between science and politics in the early years of the state.     

Archeology: Dismal science or science of the dismal?

Charles L. Redman, ed. Research and Theory in Current Archeology. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1973. ix + 390 pp. Tables, figures, references, and index. $14.95.     

Immigration and social justice: towards a progressive European immigration policy?

"Stepping back from current debates over immigration in the new 'Fortress Europe', this paper examines moral and philosophical arguments for an alternative and more 'progressive' immigration policy. Despite recent interest within geography in principles of social justice, the extent to which such principles reach beyond particular societies or nations has rarely been considered explicitly. The notion of social justice may be extended to the question of immigration, without taking the position that migration should itself be seen as a 'human right'. Even within relatively conservative contractarian and communitarian conceptions of social justice, a number of suggestions can be made for 'progressive' policy options, in particular by focusing on the communal rights and duties of societies rather than the human rights of individual migrants."     

Russia's European policy under Medvedev: how sustainable is a new compromise?

This article argues that Dmitry Medvedev's term in office, despite the continuity in Russia's foreign policy objectives, brought about a certain change in Russia's relations with the European Union and the countries of the Common Neighbourhood. The western perceptions of Russia as a resurgent power able to use energy as leverage vis‐à‐vis the EU were challenged by the global economic crisis, the emergence of a buyer's market in Europe's gas trade, Russia's inability to start internal reforms, and the growing gap in the development of Russia on the one hand and China on the other. As a result, the balance of self‐confidence shifted in the still essentially stagnant EU–Russian relationship. As before, Moscow is ready to use all available opportunities to tighten its grip on the post‐Soviet space, but it is less keen to go into an open conflict when important interests of EU member states may be affected. The realization is slowly emerging also inside Russia that it is less able either to intimidate or attract European actors, even though it can still appeal to their so‐called ‘pragmatic interests’, both transparent and non‐transparent. At the same time, whereas the new modus operandi may be suboptimal from the point of view of those in the country who would want Russia's policy to be aimed at the restoration of global power status, it is the one that the Kremlin can live with—also after the expected return of Vladimir Putin as Russia's president. Under the current scheme, the West—and the EU in particular—does little to challenge Russia's internal order and leaves it enough space to conduct its chosen course in the former Soviet Union.     

The World Food Programme: a case of benign US policy?1

The World Food Programme (WFP) is currently the largest and arguably one of the most successful of the United Nations Special Agencies, yet there has been little examination of it by international relations scholars since the early 1990s. This article seeks to analyse the normative and political characteristics of the WFP which have contributed to its effectiveness. Among its most significant findings is that American agricultural interests, interpreted through the prism of domestic political norms, have dovetailed with ‘feed-the-hungry’ norms that are projected and implemented by the WFP, resulting in the strong support of the United States for the WFP. This support undermines the perception, promoted by some critics, that the UN is incapable of acting in ways that are compatible with the national interests of the United States and other significant member-states who inherently pursue ‘national interests’ in institutional environments.     

Why does cultural policy change? Policy discourse and policy subsystem: a case study of the evolution of cultural policy in Catalonia

Culture has come to play a fundamental strategic role in the territorial development that seeks to integrate knowledge economy with social cohesion, governance and sustainability. However, cultural policies have been unable to respond to the dilemmas and expectations that this new order presents. In order to appreciate the consequences of this process, it is essential to gain a better understanding of cultural policy change dynamics. This article develops a framework for analysing cultural policy stability and change and applies it to the evolution of cultural policy in Catalonia. Both policy continuity and change are conditioned by the evolution of policy discourse on culture and the characteristics of the cultural policy subsystem. Within this framework, this article also takes into account the role of factors that are exogenous to the cultural domain. Lastly, this article addresses particular characteristics of cultural policy change in regions or stateless nations.     

Catalan linguistic policy: liberal or illiberal?

Abstract. This article analyses the discussion, enactment and characteristics of the Linguistic Policy Act adopted by the Catalan Parliament in 1998, from the point of view of current normative political theory. The main theoretical question is whether its provisions promoting the Catalan language are compatible with the liberal political tradition, considering its different streams. The discussion shows that the main arguments are not different from those used by scholars dealing with issues of national and cultural pluralism in Western democratic societies. Thus, the opponents of the Act tend to rely upon various individual rights‐based arguments taken from classical liberalism. Its advocates, on the other hand, accuse them of neglecting the value of cultural membership, asserted by influential authors within the liberal tradition. Ultimately, the article concludes that this law neither promotes nor allows illiberal practices.     

Towards a Regional Renaissance? Reconfiguring and Rescaling England's Economic Governance

Recent years have witnessed a tremendous academic and political appeal to the regional scale as the key with which to rear economic and social revitalization. Learning from exemplars such as Baden Württemberg, certain proponents of a purported 'new regionalism' advocate that the economic and democratic deficit in less-favoured regions may be revitalized by fostering a series of interacting social, economic and institutional networks. This paper provides a discussion of some of the more sophisticated approaches heralding a regional renaissance. These are then deployed through a case study of the restructuring and rescaling of England's economic governance in the late 1990s via the establishment of Regional Development Agencies (RDAs). Focusing on the experience of the North-West region, their analysis reveals that, whilst useful as a form of contextualizing regional transformation and governance, the new regionalist approaches are unable to provide a rigorous framework through which to consider England's own peculiar regional 'resurgence'. In turn, the authors call for a serious consideration of the state as a critical animateur in both structuring and scaling economic and civic life. The paper concludes that in future research, a lack of sensitivity to situated path-dependent regional economic and political geographies may serve to reproduce the 'fantasies' inherent in some earlier (post-Fordist)'transition models'.     

Regional Concentration of the Knowledge-based Economy in the EU: Towards a Renewed Oligocentric Model?

This paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of the Knowledge-based Economy spatial distribution across the European Union (EU) regions (NUTS II), linking recent research approaches on innovation and structural change with approaches to regional economics. As a means of conducting this research, we classify economic activities according to six sectors based on their knowledge/technology intensity. Our results show that the higher the knowledge/technology content of the economic activity, the higher the concentration level of the activity. We find that some service activities (those considered knowledge intensive) have similar concentration levels to those operating in high or medium tech manufacturing. With regard to specialization, the most outstanding result is the strong presence of high and medium knowledge intensive service activities in metropolitan/capital regions. In general, our results reinforce the notion that an oligocentric model persists in Europe, with the southern German regions leading high and medium tech manufacturing, the south-east of England leading in high knowledge-intensive services, and with the mid-core model exemplified by the European metropolitan archipelago (particularly capital cities) in both northern and southern Europe.     

William James on a phenomenological psychology of immediate experience: the true foundation for a science of consciousness?

Throughout his career, William James defended personal consciousness. In his "Principles of Psychology" (1890), he declared that psychology is the scientific study of states of consciousness as such and that he intended to presume from the outset that the thinker was the thought. But while writing it, he had been investigating a dynamic psychology of the subconscious, which found a major place in his Gifford Lectures, published as "The Varieties of Religious Experience" in 1902. This was the clearest statement James was able to make before he died with regard to his developing tripartite metaphysics of pragmatism, pluralism and radical empiricism, which essentially asked "Is a science of consciousness actually possible?" James's lineage in this regard, was inherited from an intuitive psychology of character formation that had been cast within a context of spiritual self-realization by the Swedenborgians and Transcendentalists of New England. Chief among these was his father, Henry James, Sr., and his godfather, Ralph Waldo Emerson. However, james was forced to square these ideas with the more rigorous scientific dictates of his day, which have endured to the present. As such, his ideas remain alive and vibrant, particularly among those arguing for the fusion of phenomenology, embodiment and cognitive neuroscience in the renewed search for a science of consciousness.