Constructing places for the market: The case of Newcastle,NSW

Abstract

Cities with a heritage of heavy industry, such as Newcastle (NSW), face an insecure future as they undergo economic restructuring. The identities of cities are being refashioned by entrepreneurial urban governments, as part of a three‐pronged attempt to market their territories. A social construction approach reveals the problematic nature of these symbolic reconstructions, their partiality, the reduction of heritage to a commodity, and the eliding of socio‐economic disadvantage. The new post‐industrial identity for Newcastle disinherits working people, ignores the local indigenous peoples, and trivialises the role of women. The richly layered urban landscape and historically constructed narratives – the local heritage – have been cynically appropriated and transformed for the purposes of place marketing. The rhetoric of post‐industrialism conceals poverty and alienation, and the associated physical restructurings are displacing service‐dependent populations.     

Towards a Culturally Sustainable Environmental Impact Assessment: The Protection of Ainu Cultural Heritage in the Saru River Cultural Impact Assessment,Japan

Culturally sustainable environmental impact assessment (EIA) requires consideration of the impact of development on local people's cultural activities, including holding ceremonies, collecting resources, and learning skills, which are fundamental essences of Indigenous rights. While culturally sustainable EIA has become a common practice when a development project involves an Indigenous community, it is still argued that Indigenous cultural heritage is not adequately protected. This is due to the fact that Indigenous people do not always keep power in the post‐approval stage of EIA, or the lack of practical measures to minimise the impact of development projects on Indigenous cultural heritage and to enhance the possibility of reaching a consensus among stakeholders. The Cultural Impact Assessment of the Saru River Region in Japan was the first investigation of a site to preserve an ethnic minority culture, with regard to a dam construction. In the second phase of the assessment project, research staff members, some of whom are of Ainu ethnicity, suggested alternative ceremony sites and conducted experimental transplants to protect the local cultural activities. The long‐term investigation by research staff, in fact, influenced the direction of the dam construction. The developer agreed not to proceed with the construction until measures were taken to minimise the impact on cultural activities that would satisfy residents in the construction area. While still early to conclude that Indigenous participation in this assessment project has been successful, Indigenous participation has clearly enhanced the possibility of reaching a consensus. The project should be considered with other published EIA reports, in demonstrating a return from investing in EIA with Indigenous participation, with a practical means for realising Indigenous rights.     

Walking the Land: Aboriginal Trails,Cultural Landscapes,and Archaeological Studies for Impact Assessment

Aboriginal people have occupied northern Alberta since the end of the last ice age. For most of that time they travelled across the land by foot, producing complex networks of trails, many of which may have great antiquity. Aboriginal people also modified the landscape extensively by the use of controlled burning. Lastly, they are immersed in and “read” the land as places with multiple cultural meanings, which in turn helped shape their cultures and identities. Together, these elements indicate the existence of a series of overlapping cultural landscapes for which the cross-country trails and waterways provide the grid. This article addresses the importance of traditional trails for identifying the cultural landscapes of northeastern Alberta and points to the rapid disappearance today of knowledge about such trails. It considers how archaeological investigations done in Alberta for Impact Assessment purposes fail to consider either trails or cultural landscapes in their surveys or to consult with Aboriginal people. As a result, government Review Panels making recommendations for whether or not an industrial project should be approved are basing their findings on incomplete information about Aboriginal land uses and meanings.     

Hydrogeomorphic Effects of River Training Works: the Case of the Allyn River,NSW

Since 1955 the NSW Department of Water Resources has undertaken extensive river training works on many NSW streams. In the Hunter Valley alone over $23 million have been spent and more than 850 km of channel have been treated Published work suggests that river training works are usually undertaken in response to a pre-existing problem of river instability but can also induce adverse hydrogeomorphic effects. One of the treated streams, the Allyn River, had been supposedly degraded by the constructed works. It was alleged that vegetation clearing, channel excavations, alignment straightening and bank protection works had decreased roughness thus increasing velocity and flood frequency. As a result, what were thought to be relatively moderate floods were eroding the banks and destroying the floodplain. A critical evaluation of the available hydraulic, hydrologic and geomorphic data revealed that the river training works were a response to, rather than a cause of river instability.     

High Court Review 2002: The Least Dangerous Branch

The article provides a general political review of recent High Court decisions and explores the extent to which the judiciary can be said to be the 'least dangerous branch'. By examining recent events such as the 'Kirby incident', as well as the important judgments handed down by the High Court concerning Native Title, IVF and the Web, it seeks to delineate the influence and changing role of the High Court in Australian politics and constitutionalism. This is the Australian Journal of Political Science 's second annual review of the Australian High Court from a political-science perspective.     

An Empirical Assessment of Devolution's Policy Impact

This article evaluates the influence of devolution on perceived and actual policy outcomes at the local level in the United States. Proponents of devolution often argue that the transfer of policymaking authority to a lower level of government allows subnational officials to more effectively address problems on the government's agenda. We provide one of the first empirical evaluations of this implicit assumption of devolution. We utilize data from 100 counties in one state, North Carolina, that were the recipients of additional welfare policymaking authority in 1997 to provide a preliminary assessment of devolution's consequences and policy impact. We then investigate the recipient governments' ability to bring about positive change using three prominent indicators associated with welfare policy. Our findings provide evidence that devolution matters quite significantly to the perception of policymaking effectiveness; however, devolution's actual impact on policy outcomes is mixed.     

The Second Coming of Rail: The Spanish High-Speed Rail-Finance Complex

This article offers a critical account of Spanish high-speed rail (HSR) through the lens of the spatial fix. I designate the integration of Spanish HSR into a European-wide process of circulation of finance capital as the HSR-finance complex. The analysis of the inner workings of the HSR-finance complex reveals the way in which European finance has laid the conditions of possibility for the development of the project and offers a forewarning about the dangers of leveraging finance capital toward green infrastructure. The analysis of the Spanish HSR-finance complex shows that the particular form of capital circulation that has made it possible has not brought about new productive combinations but has instead deepened traditional relations of economic dependency and magnified their socioenvironmental consequences.     

Mutuality, De-Mutualization and Communities: The Implications of Branch Network Rationalization in the British Building Society Industry

The paper examines the withdrawal of branches from local communities by financial institutions. It assesses whether mutually owned building societies are more adept than the former societies that have converted to public limited companies (plcs), or the high street banks, in serving disadvantaged communities. The paper shows that during the mid-1990s: mutual building societies were more likely than former societies that have converted to plcs to maintain their branch network; mutual societies were less likely than banks to withdraw from socially deprived locations and more likely to open branches in such places; differences between mutual societies and convertors are less marked, but mutual institutions appear less likely than convertors to close branches in deprived communities. Among the remaining mutual building societies there are differences of perspective, with more commercially-minded societies less positive than socially-concerned mutuals about the need to maintain or even expand branches in disadvantaged areas.     

事件经济影响研究述评——一个评估框架

经济影响一直是事件旅游研究中最受学者广泛关注的话题。虽然事件经济影响不是事件旅游文献中最早被研究的问题,但却是第一个被完整研究的主题。从1977年第一篇公开发表的关于事件经济影响研究的文章到现在,事件经济影响研究已有30多年历史,许多学者介入其中。但由于经济影响的复杂性,至今该项研究仍处于初级阶段,在概念界定、研究内容和方法方面还存在很多问题。本文通过对76篇事件经济影响的历史文献进行梳理,对事件经济影响研究的主要内容、方法和结论做了详细的介绍,以期为事件经济影响提供一个统一的评估框架,为致力于事件经济影响研究的学者提供比较完整的文献资料.     

The Golgi Stain: Invention,Diffusion and Impact on Neurosciences

The black reaction, invented in 1873 by Camillo Golgi (1843-1926), was the first technique to reveal neurons in their entirety, i.e. with all their processes. This important development passed unnoticed at first and only received wide international attention after a long delay. The Golgi stain was widely employed for almost thirty years and was directly responsible for major advances in our knowledge of the microscopic anatomy of the nervous system, as well as in other fields of study. In the hands of other researchers, the black reaction provided vital evidence that helped to establish the neuron theory. The Golgi stain was almost forgotten in the period between the two World Wars, but the introduction of the electron microscope to neurocytological research revived its use around the middle of the twentieth century. Today, the black reaction is still used extensively not only in combination with electron microscopy, but also as an autonomous technique in studies on the evolution, ontogeny, and organization of the nervous system.     

中国人民银行江西省分行临时流通券

第一套人民币中,有三种较为特殊的地方人民币,即分别仅限于内蒙、新疆及江西三地区流通的人民币。笔者历经数年,查阅相关历史资料,现将中国人民银行江西分行成立历史背景、发行临时流通券的相关史料以及自己的一些研究心得,一并撰文如下,以飨读者。     

Obama's Executive Branch Czars: The Constitutional Controversy and a Legislative Solution

The increasingly common practice of presidential appointment of so-called executive branch czars has become especially contentious in the Obama era. Much of that controversy unfortunately is highly partisan-oriented and misses the core constitutional issues at stake. In this article, we describe and analyze the Obama-era executive branch czars controversy from a constitutional analysis framework. In so doing, we offer a working definition of executive branch czars—a much-needed corrective to the current debates in which the term has been used very loosely. We examine and analyze the scope of authority exercised by the high-level executive branch officials during the Obama administration that we consider to be constitutionally troublesome. Although our focus is on the Obama czars that have vast and largely unchecked powers, we also acknowledge that some media-labeled czar positions are statutorily created and accountable and thus should not be in the same category. After addressing the Obama-era czars, we offer a set of reform proposals that provide a much-needed corrective.     

Estimations of Koala Habitat Loss on the Tilligerry Peninsula,NSW, 1954–1992

The Tilligerry Peninsula on the central NSW coast supports a significant Koala population. By 1992 residential and mining developments had reduced the identified Koala habitat on this peninsula to less than half of what was apparent in 1954. A major part of the habitat loss was caused by mining for silica and heavy mineral sands in the corridors connecting the forests of the peninsula to other areas of Koala habitat. The degree of habitat loss in three types of land use over four periods between 1954 and 1992 is examined.