Hammams and the contemporary city: the case of Isfahan,Iran

Hammams, or public baths, are an essential part of the social life in urban Islam. Often, they have a rich and inspiring architecture. In Iran and, in particular, in Isfahan – a large and historic city in central of Iran – numerous hammams were built since the Safavid dynasty (1501–1722). Social and urban changes have resulted in a significant decline in the number of hammams over the years. This paper starts by describing the multiple dimensions of hammams, such as their main architecture features, their role in health, society and culture. This is followed by an analysis of hammams in Isfahan, using a modified version of Büyükdigan categories for Ottoman baths: (i) ‘baths in ruins’; (ii) ‘baths continuing their original functions’; and (iii) ‘baths readjusted for new uses’. Anecdotal evidence from a survey conducted in 15 hammams is used throughout this paper. The main conclusions relate to the rapid deterioration of hammams in daily life, coupled with the lack of detailed documentation, which would allow proper planning and development, and the deficient use of some of these magnificent buildings and places for tourism development.     

Heritage-making and the dilemma of multivocality in South Africa: a case of Wildebeest Kuil

Heritage-making is discussed in this paper as it manifests in the South African museum space, specifically that of the Wildebeest Kuil Rock Art Tourism Centre in South Africa’s Northern Cape. This is an archaeologically rich site with the histories of diverse peoples having left impressions on the landscape. It is a relevant microcosm of South Africa’s past fraught with contending histories. The interpretive space at the tourism centre is an example of the hits and misses within the South African heritage landscape in terms of the practice of multivocality; that is, the co-existence of diverse perspectives and narratives. Discussing transformation and democratisation in the South African museum space, the paper highlights two main interpretive efforts at Wildebeest Kuil, the introductory film and the 31 Battalion military exhibition that show both the progress in decolonising the museum space as well as setbacks to that process.     

National identity and the representation of Italy at war: The case of Combat film

This article examines the documentary series Combat film made by Leonardo Valente and Roberto Olla for Rai-Uno. Shown in April 1994, the series was based on film taken by the American army (1943-5) and provoked a national scandal when it was first shown. The article argues that in order to fully understand Combat film it is necessary to look at the overall design of the programme as well as its content. By concentrating on the 'special' shown on 5 April 1994 the author demonstrates how the revisionist message of 'national reconciliation' which underlies the programme is reinforced by a series of formal and technical strategies.     

Local government and the meanings of political representation: A case study of Bologna between 1860 and 1915

Since the early nineteenth century political opposition became a central concept of political representation in constitutional monarchies. While this concept marked the political language of unified Italy on the national level, in local administration the legitimacy of political opposition remained an issue of dispute, as illustrated in this analysis of the political language in Bologna's local council. Local perceptions of national events, like the government's reaction to Garibaldi's unsuccessful Mentana-campaign, assumed major symbolic meaning in local politics and challenged traditional understandings of municipal administration by introducing the concept of political opposition. In Bologna, after Rome the second city of the former Papal State, the Moderates were able to grow into a position of political hegemony after the Unification of Italy and remained the predominant political force also after Italy's “parliamentary revolution” of 1876 and the electoral reforms of the 1880s. As a consequence of its limited influence on the local administration, Bologna's Left defined its ideological profile earlier and more clearly than the Left in other parts of Italy and integrated issues of national importance into local political discourse. Analysing the relationship between central administration and periphery, the article reveals the development of political language and the changing meanings of political representation between Unification and World War One and explains on this basis the escalation of social and political conflict in Finesecolo Italy.     

Polycentricity as spatial imaginary: the case of Helsinki City Plan

The paper analyses with a case study the use of a widely applied normative concept of polycentricity as spatial imaginary. The case study of Helsinki City Plan and the conflict over its city-boulevard scheme draws on qualitative content analysis of planning documents and expert interviews. It demonstrates the instrumental role of multiple interpretations of polycentricity in tension-ridden metropolitan and city-regional spatial planning. The conflict reveals how the conceptual ambiguity of polycentricity and the institutional vagueness of city-regional planning have together enabled advancing contradictory political aims under their guise. In conclusion, the paper emphasizes the persuasive performativity and fluidity of polycentricity as a spatial imaginary in multi-scalar planning settings.     

Geography and representation: introduction

Simulation games have a long history in education and are well suited to learning about negotiation, power, relationships and uncertain outcomes. This paper reflects on the experience of using a semester-long simulation game to introduce postgraduate students to development policy. It focuses on three issues identified in the literature—realism, the role of staff and assessment—and maintains that the risks and uncertainties associated with simulation games are beneficial in ensuring effective learning about policy.     

Montpellier and Genoa: The dilemma of dominance

During the high and late middle ages, Genoa was a dominant force in Mediterranean commerce. This study examines the relationship between Genoa and the Southern French town of Montpellier in three historical eras: the twelfth century to about 1180; from the 1180s to about 1270; and from 1270 through the mid-fourteenth century. In the first era Genoa, along with Pisa, exercised economic hegemony over the coast of Southern France. In the second period, Montpellier gradually emancipated itself from Genoese commercial control. In the third era interaction between Montpellier and Genoa became increasingly complex because of the growth of French influence in Languedoc. The French monarchy sought to control southern French commerce with a requirement in 1278 that Italian merchants reside in Nimes and trade through Aigues-Mortes, and later in the 1330s with the offer of a transport monopoly over goods from southern France to Genoese admirals Doria and Grimaldi. Montpellier resisted these French efforts, invoking its commercial independence and political allegiance to the Majorcan king. By the mid-fourteenth century Genoese pretensions to commercial dominance over Montpellier were hollow reminders of the past, but the Genoese legacy of business technology remained strong.     

On the urns of a dilemma: radiocarbon and the Peterborough problem

Radiocarbon dates are presented for distinctive types of British Late Neolithic pottery, identifying questions which cannot yet be resolved.     

The Unstable People of a Tumultuous Land: Persia Through the Eyes and Feet of Hajji Baba of Isfahan

For the English interested in Persia in the nineteenth century, James Morier's Adventures of Hajji Baba of Isfahan was a crucial text, as it also was for Iranians who read its groundbreaking Persian translation almost half a century later. The text provided a persuasive understanding of Persia that has endured in the western imagination. This paper begins with the framing narrative and shows how the frame story sets the stage for a convincing literary portrait of Persia and Persians. Then it analyzes the image of Persia constructed in this book through the characterization of Hajji Baba as representative of Persians, and the geopolitical portrayal of the country that emerges from the account of his travels.     

Changing queenships in tenth-century England: rhetoric and (self-)representation in the case of Eadgifu of Kent at Cooling

The charter now known as Sawyer 1211 contains a detailed account of an intergenerational property dispute between Queen Eadgifu and her rival Goda, concerning the possession of two Kentish estates. Typically, the charter has either been understood as evidence of dispute settlement or to establish facts about Eadgifu that are otherwise unattested. This article argues that Sawyer 1211 has further value when approached as a narrative which drew upon Eadgifu’s memories and oral testimony. Read in this way, it reveals a (self-)representation of her legal agency that has important implications for the understanding of early English queenship.