Third Carthage: Struggles and Contestations Over Archaeological Space

This paper investigates how the archaeological site of modern Carthage was (re)produced and (re)appropriated by various interest groups from the early 19th century to the present. It traces the struggle of archaeologists and conservationists to protect Carthage’s ancient ruins within a changing urban environment invariably dominated by Tunisia’s most powerful and influential elites. The paper highlights some controversial issues that have affected the unity of an envisaged archaeological park in the area. In doing so, it brings to the fore the ongoing conflict between the different statuses of Carthage: symbolic capital of Tunisia, historic site, living city and tourist destination.     

The Student's Two Bodies: Civic Engagement and Political Becoming in the Post‐Socialist Space

Student activism in Montenegro has remained largely unaccounted for in the growing body of literature on civic engagement and popular politics in the post‐Yugoslav space. When students took their discontent to the streets of the Montenegrin capital in November 2011, the dual nature of the student body was rendered visible and audible: while the official student organizations framed their activity as an apolitical expression of discontent over studying conditions, several independent student associations positioned themselves as an extra‐parliamentary opposition to the ruling establishment and called for the creation of a wide anti‐austerity/anti‐corruption coalition. Drawing from critical theory, political sociology, and human geography, this article addresses the questions of why, how, when, and where a part of the student body became political. I argue that a social context that lacks a tradition of politically engaged student movements provides opportunities for a nuanced understanding of political becoming of a hitherto apolitical social group.     

Berlin: The Metropolis as a Production Space

Metropolitan regions can be regarded as economic areas comprising various sub-economies with different forms of economic and spatial organization. The purpose of this article is to undertake a critical appraisal of the vision of Berlin as a 'service metropolis' through empirical observation of sectoral trends and locational patterns in the city, and to establish that Berlin's urban area is a major production space with a complex fabric of specialized production districts. This spatial organization will be examined in terms of the level of agglomeration of various sub-economies with special reference to the formation of local enterprise clusters in the Berlin economic area. Berlin's specialization profile and the employment trend in the city compared with other metropolitan cities in Germany make it clear that the metropolis of Berlin is under threat as a production space, and this threat partly stems from the way in which the real estate business has developed in the Berlin area.     

Built Space as Story

Policy analysis, both of a positivist and of an interpretivist bent, often focuses on the explicit, formal language of legislation. But policy meanings are also communicated through agency acts that take place in settings. In this essay I explore what we might learn for policy analysis in seeing built spaces–that is, policy settings–as texts, and specifically as stories.     

The Space Station

Abstract

The era of manned spaceflight began in the early 1960s. Now, only a quarter of a century later, the foundation is being laid for permanently manned space stations which, a century ago, were the domain of visionaries whose dreams of space habitats and their uses were not that far away from current plans. The first space stations were the Soviet Salyut 1 and the American Skylab of the early 1970s. The Russians built a succession of Salyuts, the last of which was Salyut-7, launched in 1982. This was succeeded in 1986 by Mir, to which a first expansion module has already been added. Mir is planned to become a multimodule facility. The Americans have chosen a different path to their space station. From 1975 to 1981, they developed their Space Transportation System (Space Shuttle) of which Spacelab is a part. Built by Europe and flown first in 1983, it is the world's only reusable, manned space laboratory. The Space Shuttle is to be the logistics vehicle for the US-directed International Space Station, which includes cooperation from Europe, Japan and Canada. As currently planned, the ISS will consist of a rectangular framework of trusses at the center of which will be a core of laboratory, habitation and logistics modules. Unattached space station elements are to include polar-orbiting platforms and a co-orbiting, automated laboratory.     

Chinese Engagement with Africa: The Case of Madagascar

Using field work in Madagascar as the foundation for a case study, two U.S.-based geographers examine the complex relations developing between many African nations and the Chinese government as well as ethnic Chinese citizens and guest-workers who live and work in Africa. The study investigates changes in the perceptions of Malagasy citizens of the Chinese presence and long-term effects of Chinese investments in Madagascar's economy. Although the Chinese living in Madagascar tend to be viewed as "cut from the same cloth," the study demonstrates that there is considerable differentiation depending on the length of residence, rates of intermarriage with Malagasy citizens, and feelings toward the recent "economic" immigrants and guest workers. The paper integrates archival data with interviews involving recent Chinese guest-workers living in Antananarivo in 2011 as well as results of a systematic survey of most active French-language "blogs" dedicated to Sino-Malagasy relations, with the goal of presenting a comprehensive account of past and present Chinese influences and behavior in Madagascar.