Metropolitan cooperation in Europe: Theoretical issues and perspectives for urban networking 1

In recent years urban entrepreneurialism has become a metropolitan strategy to cope with the challenges of an increasingly flexible global economy. Building on a debate about the problematic nature of this strategy we argue that cooperation of cities, or metropolitan cooperation, constitutes a new policy option for local actors which has the potential to overcome the negative effects of urban competition. In order to explore this potential we analyse the fundamental changes of the local state and existing cooperative efforts. This analysis shows that so far metropolitan cooperation is mainly experimental in character and a policy option that moves forward by trial and error and by learning from success and failure. We see this as partly due to a lack of an adequate theoretical framework dealing with the economics of urban systems. By way of synthesizing different academic discourses we suggest a conceptualization of metropolitan cooperation which takes into account the potential economic benefits and institutional requirements of cooperative behaviour of urban actors. Based on these considerations we establish criteria for suitable thematic fields of metropolitan cooperation and suggest forms of institutionalization.     

Iron Age temperate Europe: Some current research issues

The Iron Age designates the 800 years preceding the Roman conquest of Europe. This period represents the latest social and cultural development of indigenous European societies before the annexation of much of temperate Europe into the Roman Empire and the final phase of cultural change before the beginning of local traditions of written history north of the Alps. Our understanding of the Iron Age has changed substantially over the past 30 years, as a result both of recent discoveries and of new perspectives. Much recent research has focused on specific themes such as changing social structure and patterns of ritual behavior. I attempt here to provide an overview of current understanding and debate on some of these topics in Iron Age archaeology. The subject and its literature are vast, and my treatment is selective. The references will guide the interested reader to the wider literature.     

Heritage and archaeology in Chitral,Pakistan: exploring some local views and issues

The present article presents the results of a recent (2009) survey of understandings and attitudes to heritage and culture in Chitral, Pakistan. Chitral has two main ethnic-religious groups: the Muslim Kho and the Kalasha, who are the largest non-Muslim minority group in the Hindu Kush. Very little is known formally of Chitral history and prehistory beyond the last 200–300 years, and this has led to a relatively set list of heritage and cultural events or traits being iterated by local people and outsiders alike. With a growing emphasis on tourism and development in Chitral we think that it is important for local people to have understanding and control of what is and is not presented as heritage here, and also how heritage might be appropriately preserved. We also touch on the tensions between a powerful majority and a less powerful minority group, and the impact such an unequal relationship has on heritage.     

第二轮修县市志要重视记述失业与就业问题

章认为第二轮修县市志重视记述失业与就业问题要做到：一、必须直面失业与就业问题。二、记述内容时要追溯计划经济时期失业问题就一直存在的实际情况;农村失业、城市失业、结构性失业、周期性失业、隐性失业和高学历人群失业现象。三、要记述各级党委和政府为扩大就业和再就业所采取的一系列措施和效果。四、要记述建立统一规范的劳动力市场,完善就业服务体系。五、要记述大力发展教育事业,全面提高劳动素质。六、要记述实行灵活的就业形式。     

Global Agendas,Local Norms: Mobilizing around Unpaid Care and Domestic Work in Asia

This article explores the articulation and framing of unpaid care work and the mobilization around it at two spatial scales, the global and national. For the latter it focuses on three of the largest and most diverse countries in Asia — India, China and Indonesia. While the concept of unpaid care work has received considerable attention in international development discourse, it is rarely found in feminist mobilization and advocacy across these countries. The article asks why this issue remains largely excluded from women's political agendas. It also explores how it is framed when it is included. While most organizations recognize women's double burden and the importance of domestic labour, they do not consider ‘unpaid care work’ as a legitimate political issue around which to mobilize. Rather, it is framed, if at all, as part of other political agendas, such as the rights of the elderly (in China), the rights to social protection, especially childcare and maternity entitlements (in India), or the right to equal opportunities within marriage (in Indonesia). The study analyses the differences in framing, the conceptualization of gender equality embedded therein, and the implications for policy.     

Ethnicity in complex societies: Archaeological perspectives

It is often difficult to identify ethnic groups in the archaeological record, yet archaeology has much to contribute to understanding the long-term social and political dynamics of ethnicity. This review considers recent anthropological perspectives on ethnic groups and their boundaries, emphasizing the role of state formation in their creation and maintenance. It then reviews recent archaeological studies of ethnicity in complex societies and discusses current questions facing archaeological research on these topics.     

Reexamining transport poverty,job access,and gender issues in Central and Eastern Europe

Tirana, the Balkan capital examined in this study, displays patterns of gendered job search behavior and access, which are unique within contemporary Europe and even within post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe. Here, it is a rather spatially constricted job search range rather than transport poverty that prevents women living in first-ring suburbs from attaining satisfactory employment. Female commutes are extraordinarily short and most often on foot. While the city now has nearly one million inhabitants and a high car ownership rate, and is located in Europe, the employment and mobility choices and behaviors of its female residents resemble those in developing rather than developed countries, and in small rather than large cities. The reasons underpinning this situation have more to do with socio-cultural gender barriers and less with transport poverty or labor market weaknesses. This finding might apply to other Balkan capitals or cities outside Europe, which have recently experienced large waves of internal migration and where both existing residents and newcomers have not yet adjusted to ‘big city’ life.     

No and after: options for Europe

The French and Dutch ‘no’ votes in referendums on the European Union Constitutional Treaty have thrown the EU into turmoil. The messages from both referendums are that public dissatisfaction with European integration is widespread and there is a disjuncture between the views of citizens and those of elites. The original purpose of the process that produced the Constitutional Treaty was to bring the EU closer to its citizens. However, the text that was negotiated was an unwieldy document intended to satisfy diverse requirements but difficult to explain concisely. After the completion of negotiations some governments, for reasons of political expediency, took decisions to hold referendums on the treaty, but the future of The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe that took three years to complete is now uncertain. Furthermore, member states are divided about whether to press ahead with ratification after the two recent ‘no’ votes. What is the range of alternatives to member states if they wish to salvage the treaty or component parts? Finding a way through this current situation is the task the British government faces as it takes on the EU presidency from 1 July 2005.     

The regulation of employment services: Private employment agencies and labour market policy

Public policy relating to the labour market has undergone significant change over recent years. These changes reflect demands for greater flexibility in the labour market, and respond to pressures of growing levels of unemployment and consequent exacerbation of divisions within the labour market. A conflict is apparent, however, in the mix of policies adopted. Accompanying moves towards a more ‘active’ style labour market policy has been a trend towards greater reliance on private means of delivery such that the dividing line between public (CES) and private employment agencies is becoming increasingly blurred. Evidence from a survey of private employment agencies and employers conducted in Brisbane in 1992/93 suggests that such a trend may reduce the capacity to regulate employment services and facilitate a commitment to employers’ interests at the expense of those of many entrants to the labour market.     

Governance, institutional capacity and partnerships in local economic development: theoretical issues and empirical evidence from the Humber Sub-region

Recent research on local and regional economic development has focused upon transformations in local governance and institutional capacity. It has been argued that local authorities have ceded power to other actors and institutions involved in economic development and regeneration, and that the success of local and regional economic development is closely related to the strength of 'institutional capacity' within an area. In this paper, we examine these claims with reference to the operation of EU Structural Funds in the Humber Sub-region of the UK. Previous research on local governance and institutional capacity has had a limited empirical focus, drawing conclusions from studies of either economically 'successful' regions or regions undergoing regulatory and institutional transformation and precluding analysis of the nature and conditions of local governance and institutional capacity in less developed regions. Our case study evidence not only suggests that arguments about the declining influence of the local state are overdrawn, but also indicates a need for more nuanced accounts of the role of institutional capacity in regional development.     

Culture in global knowledge societies: knowledge cultures and epistemic cultures

Abstract

This paper explores the concepts of knowledge culture and epistemic culture against the background of contemporary transformations in global society. Studies of knowledge culture came to prominence in the 1970s, with the trend towards laboratory fieldwork and direct observation in the new sociology of science. If the focus in such early studies was on knowledge construction, the focus in an epistemic culture approach by contrast is on the construction of the machineries of knowledge construction, relocating culture in the micropractices of laboratories and other bounded habitats of knowledge practice. Not all places of knowledge, however, are bounded spaces, and there is a case to be made for including in the empirical agenda more distributed locations. This is done here by introducing the concept of 'macro-epistemics', to describe wider networks of knowledge generation such as what is often known as 'the global financial architecture'. The discussion concludes by moving out from macro-epistemic circuits to questions of the cultural environment of epistemic settings, and of the more general knowledge culture in which specific knowledge processes are embedded.     

道教传统、士大夫文化与地方社会——宋明以来闽西四保邹公崇拜研究

Zougong, the most important local deity at Sibao, Tingzhou Prefecture, was worshipped by local villagers at least from the Yuan and the Ming dynasties on. The Zou lineages in the area regarded Zougong as their common ancestor. Existing literature usually identifies Zougong as Zou Yinglong, a zhuangyuan in the Southern Song Dynasty. However, such identification appeared only in the late Ming period when local elites of several Zou lineages consciously tried to unite and consolidate their lineages. Before that, Zougong was a mighty ritual master in a series of magic contest stories popular at Tingzhou, rather than a zhuangyuan. The change of his identity from ritual master to zhuangyuan was a result of convergence of Taoist tradition, gentry culture and local culture, which may be called “cultural hybridization,” rather than a simple process by which local culture gave way to gentry culture. Translated by Zhou Weiwei from Lishi Yanjiu 历史研究 (Historical Research), 2007, (3): 72–87     

Fighting for recognition: feminist geography in East-Central Europe

In East-Central Europe (ECE), the evolution of feminist geographies began after the end of state socialism. Aiming to identify individual and shared characteristics, this study outlines the development of gender/feminist geography in East-Central European countries. Providing a brief historical overview, the first part of the article substantiates the arguments that i) the evolution of feminist geography in ECE is linked to the post-socialist transition; although the fall of state socialism has removed the political, social and ideological obstacles that prevented its gaining ground, this approach is still considered to be relatively new; and ii) today, development is hindered mainly by conservative mainstream geography, which seems slower in transforming itself than in some related disciplines which have ‘embraced’ gender studies. The topics, methods and theories of feminist geography that have developed in ECE is significantly influenced by the resistance that advocates of feminist geography have to contend with from representatives of mainstream post-socialist geographies. The second part of the article presents the major characteristics of gender/feminist geography in Europe's post-socialist region, while providing an outline of the various methods used in an attempt to earn positive recognition for gender studies. The concluding section maps some lessons to be learnt on the relationship between the production of feminist geographical knowledge and post-socialism.     

Policy options for full employment: Which way forward for Australia

This paper seeks to review the long‐term policy choices Australia faces if full employment is to be restored. Using cross‐national data for the period 1972–88, it identifies the variety of routes taken to mass unemployment and full employment It then discusses the diverse policy strategies underlying routes to full employment and examines the possibility and desirability of their adoption in Australia.