URBANIZATION AS A PHENOMENON OF SOCIAL HISTORY

Summary. The prime question considered is the process by which a village is transformed to a city. Two intermediate stages are defined: the quasi-city and the proto-city, the principal differences being that the proto-city serves as a central place in a region, has a higher level of social production and contains a high percentage of people engaged part time or full time in specialist activities. The role of craftsmen, traders and palace/temples are discussed. The full city emerges only with a fully developed class society.     

MYCENAEAN TOMBS AS EVIDENCE FOR SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ORGANISATION.1

Summary. A chronological and spatial analysis of Mycenaean tomb types is presented in the belief that burial practices reflect the social and political changes which occurred during the Late Helladic period. Interpretation of the evidence is complicated by the degree of regional diversity. However, it is suggested that the practices of the Middle Helladic period were not as simple as has been supposed and foreshadow the innovations of the early Mycenaean period which were inspired by political motives. The increasing standardisation in tomb types in LHIII was conditioned by the emergence of the Mycenaean palace system, the collapse of which engendered the changes seen in LHIIIC.     

WEST EDMONTON MALL AS A CENTRE FOR SOCIAL INTERACTION

The emergence of a mega-mall - with its increased scale, size, and ensuing annexation of much of a city's retail and social life - intensifies the need for research about the social functions of shopping centres. Profiles of mall social life are necessary to understand the larger geographical, legal, political, and social issues accompanying the proliferation of such privately owned, publicly used indoor urban environments. Social interaction at West Edmonton Mall (wem) is characterized through an examination of its physical design and operation and an assessment of attitudes and uses of its local patrons, including adolescent 'ma/ies. wem is not as successful in orchestrating visitor satisfaction as one might expect, due partly to the amplification of tension between mall owners I designers and the desire of local residents to engage the mega-mall on their own terms.     

CHARACTERIZATION OF PLASTERS AND MORTARS AS A TOOL IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL STUDIES: THE CASE OF LARDIRAGO CASTLE IN PAVIA,NORTHERN ITALY*

Plasters and mortars from Lardirago Castle (Pavia, northern Italy) have been characterized by means of petrographical and chemical analyses in order to achieve technical and historical evidence of material production. The study focused on the oldest nucleus of the structure, where hidden plastered masonry has been discovered recently. Textural and compositional data of the binder and the aggregate fractions were collected by means of optical microscopy and electron microscopy coupled with microanalysis. These data permit the identification of building materials with similar technical and compositional characteristics, which can be related to different building phases.     

DENTAL ATTRITION AT THE INDIAN KNOLL (15OH2) AND BLACK EARTH (11SA87) SITES: EXTREME WEAR AS A STRESSOR IN LATE ARCHAIC POPULATIONS OF THE OHIO VALLEY

Abstract

This study investigates comparatively the prospect that excessive dental wear in certain Late Archaic populations in eastern North America was caused by extensive shellfish consumption and the associated ingestion of grit. Specifically, the amount and rate of dental wear at Indian Knoll, a large shell midden site in western Kentucky, are compared to those at the Black Earth site, a contemporary occupation in southern Illinois with no evidence of shellfish utilization. Results show no significant differences in dental wear between Indian Knoll and Black Earth and point correspondingly toward the alternative prospect that the intensification of Late Archaic food-processing technology using stone-grinding and hot-rock cooking was the proximate cause. Such technologies provided short-term caloric benefits, but long-term disease consequences for adults of child-bearing age. A decrease in young adult dental wear correlates with the adoption of both food production and pottery in the subsequent Woodland period.     

社会网络的空间化:以深圳传媒产业为例的社会地理网络研究

经济社会学对于经济活动所根植的社会关系网络的揭示,引发了网络思想的普遍关注。本文从经济社会学与文化经济地理学相结合的跨学科视角,探讨如何使用社会网络分析技术,将文化经济活动的地域关系网络可视化,提出"社会地理网络"的概念。论文以深圳传媒产业"大事记"作为数据来源,详细叙述了如何将影响深圳传媒产业发展历程的社会地理关系网络可视化的方法,揭示了传媒产业"社会地理网络"的存在;初步说明了社会地理网络研究的方法论意义和政策含义。     

MONUMENTS AND SOCIAL COMPLEXITY: A NEW LINE OF ENQUIRY?

Summary. Studies of prehistoric monuments have suggested that there may be a relationship between the amount of labour needed to build them and the complexity of contemporary society. To some extent such work has been influenced by the rich ethno-historical record of the Polynesian chiefdoms. This article compares the role of large monuments in Polynesia with ethnographic evidence describing monument building in an Indian tribe. It concludes that an important contrast between the two examples is that in simpler societies monument building may be essentially an 'event', whilst in more complex societies monuments can be maintained for a substantial period after their erection.
Similar contrasts can be found in the archaeological record in Britain and suggest that whilst Neolithic earthworks may have made greater demands on human labour, it was only in the Iron Age that society possessed the capacity to undertake regular maintenance of large monuments.     

SOCIAL NETWORKS AND THE CONVERGENCE OF POPULATION ATTRIBUTES: A GENERALIZATION

ABSTRACT.  Analysis of social interactions has recently become an important area of economic research, and the focus of researchers in this area has increasingly shifted toward dynamic models. In one recent contribution, Brueckner and Smirnov (2007) analyze the evolution of population attributes in an exceedingly simple model, where an agent's attributes at time t are equal to the average attribute value among his acquaintances. The pattern of acquaintances in the population is determined by the social network, and Brueckner and Smirnov (BS) explore the effect of network characteristics on the convergence of population attributes over time. They show that some simple sufficient conditions on the network structure ensure convergence to a "melting-pot" equilibrium where attributes are uniform across agents. The present paper provides a generalization of BS's analysis, allowing for a more general form of the rule governing the evolution of population attributes. The analysis shows that BS's previous conclusions continue to hold under this generalization, while also providing a result that can be applied more generally to other models.     

社会建构主义视角下的区域：研究综述与启示

区域一直是地理学研究的核心概念。近些年来,如同空间和地方在本体论和认识论的变化,区域的含义也受到了由空间分析范式转变所带来的挑战和修正。基于这种背景,本文梳理了从社会建构主义视角理解区域问题的相关文献,并归纳了主要研究议题。研究发现:区域的含义逐渐从封闭性、有边界的、稳定的领域性特征转向开放性、可渗透的、流动的关系性特征。当前区域的社会建构的研究议题主要包括区域身份的形成与建构、区域的制度化与去制度化、区域化与区域发展三个方面。值得指出的是,区域的社会建构不是要摒弃区域具有固定领域形状的观点,而是要看到经济、社会和政治力量对区域变化的影响,理解区域是制度化、社会建构和政治上存在争议的空间。更重要在于,探讨区域在领域性和关系性之间的相互作用并对区域发展的影响。此外,文章试图廓清区域和地方这两个术语在人文地理研究中的区别和联系。最后讨论了运用社会建构主义视角看待区域问题的方法论意义,并进一步提出了国内未来研究值得关注的方向。     

THE FOOD VALUE CHAIN AS A LOCUS FOR (DIS)AGREEMENT: CONVENTIONS AND QUALITIES IN THE SPANISH WINE AND NORWEGIAN SALTED COD INDUSTRIES

According to the theory of conventions, food value chains (FVCs) involve a complex array of actors who share an agreement about the qualities embodied in their particular foodstuff. Nevertheless, that agreement is continuously challenged by changes in consumer markets. Therefore, I argue that FVCs able to adapt those qualities to new trends will perform better than FVCs whose commitment to certain qualities leads to a misunderstanding between producers and consumers. The organization of the chain itself, the values of national regulatory frameworks, and the goals of the national innovation system are discussed as factors that shape an FVCs' ability to re‐arrange that core agreement. By using professional reports, statistical records and personal interviews, this article focuses on two FVCs that have experienced contrasting trajectories in recent decades in the Spanish market: the wine industry located in the region of Castile and Leon (Spain) and the Norwegian salted cod industry. The growing wine FVC has achieved a successful agreement about a set of qualities linked to nature, tradition, and place, all of them guaranteed by the reputation of the Designation of Origin (DO) system. In contrast, the salted cod FVC is losing its market share because its main actors are failing to properly communicate the key qualities of environmental sustainability and artisanal cod production to concerned Spanish consumers, as well as in the adoption of the place‐related attributes that still shape consumer preferences in Spain.     

CULTURAL AND SOCIAL DISCONNECTION IN THE CONTEXT OF A CHANGED PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

The context of the study was provided by the enforced relocation of an old coal mining community in the UK and describes the changes that were experienced by relocatees. The study is longitudinal in design over a six year period and this article is based on the qualitative part of the study. The old village had consisted of five straight rows of terraced houses whereas the new village was built in a curvilinear design with additional housing, occupying a much larger space. Reduced visual access to others not only diminished a sense of connectedness but also restricted an information flow which had been part of the functioning of the previous community, leaving indigenous participants with a sense of isolation. This unwanted isolation diluted the previous collective identity and weakened social support. In addition, an abrupt change in the community's socio‐cultural patterns occurred and previously learned privacy mechanisms were found to be inappropriate in the new setting. New values, priorities, lifestyles and overt materialism were evident and the data suggest that the earlier mostly collective functioning of the community had been replaced by individual functioning. It is proposed that spatial aspects provide constraints and opportunities for different behaviour patterns, highlighting the crucial importance of the physical environment and illustrating the essentially dynamic relationship between person, group and place.