The Arizona community data set: a long‐term project for education and research in economic geography

Abstract

The teaching of economic geography has received considerable attention in the literature over the last three years. This paper contributes to the debate by illustrating and analyzing a project based at the University of Arizona, the Arizona Community Data Set (ACDS). The ACDS is a long‐term field‐project that has given students the opportunity to go in the field to collect and analyze regional economic data and to apply theory and techniques learned in the classroom. This unique data set has yielded additional benefits in the area of basic research. It is argued that projects such as the ACDS complement some of the theoretical and analytical curriculum developed and recently published by other instructors in economic geography. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that some of the limitations commonly associated with field projects, especially the cost, can partly be overcome through sponsorship by community agencies.     

Can advocacy change the views of politicians about aid? The potential and limits of a presence-based approach

Advocates of foreign aid in OECD countries navigate a unique form of politics. The beneficiaries of foreign aid spending have little voice in elite level decision-making about aid commitments from OECD countries. Thus foreign aid spending has a form of politics unlike other areas of policy where there is more direct budget accountability with citizens. Scholarly attention has increased on this unusual domestic politics of aid spending yet there remains little examination of the opportunities, challenges and tensions for aid organisations in advocating to elected officials. This article focuses on the case of Australian foreign aid, and the Australian Aid and Parliament project, an initiative of Save the Children. This initiative facilitates exposure visits to aid recipient countries for Australian parliamentarians. Most aid advocacy projects in OECD countries rely on mobilising citizens of those countries to act as a proxy, advocating on behalf of aid beneficiaries. This project reveals the potential of advocacy efforts that focus on the direct ‘presence’ of aid beneficiaries in the experience of elected officials (from donor countries). Yet it also reveals several challenges, and tensions between advocates, about how aid commitments change, and the most effective role for advocacy groups to play.     

The city as a set of problems: A non‐synthesizing approach to understanding urban places

Neil C. Kalt and Sheldon S. Zalkind. Urban Problems: Psychological Inquiries. New York: Oxford University Press, 1976. v + 543 pp. Author index, subject index. $13.00 cloth, $8.00 paper.     

Popular,picture history: The confessions of a soi‐disant ’consultant’

The British Empire, 98‐part series; Time‐Life International in cooperation with the British Broadcasting Corporation, 1972–3. Consultants: D. K. Fieldhouse and A. F. Madden.     

No end in sight for Dreyfus research: The beginning of a twelve‐year centenary?

Drouin, M., ed., L'Affaire Dreyfus de A à Z (Flammarion, 1994), 714pp., 195F. Duclert, V., L'affaire Dreyfus (La Decouverte, 1994), 128pp., 45F. Birnbaum, P. L'affaire Dreyfus (Gallimard, 1994), 144pp., 72F.

Philippe, B., ed., Une tragédie de la Belle Epoque: l'Affaire Dreyfus (Comité du Centenaire de 1'Affaire Dreyfus, 1994), 175pp., 200F.     

Bayt al‐razzaz: The challenge of adaptive use for a vacant mamluk palace in Cairo

Abstract

In 1995, the author prepared an Existing Conditions Report and a Conservation Action Plan for the Bayt al‐Razzaz palace for the Egyptian Antiquities Project of the American Research Center in Egypt, Inc. (ARCE). This effort was a Subgrant Project under ARCE's USAID‐funded Restoration and Preservation of Egyptian Antiquities Project grant. Bayt al‐Razzaz, a vacant fifteenth‐century palace in the heart of mediaeval Cairo presents an exciting opportunity for adaptive reuse to benefit an economically poor but socially and culturally stable urban neighbourhood. Realising such an opportunity will require innovative, cooperative vision and leadership on the part of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, the local community and also continued international participation.     

The Concepts of imitatio and translatio: Perceptions of a Viking‐Age Past

The author presents the results of excavations at Mare Church, North Tr?ndelag. Medieval sources indicate that Mære was the religious centre for Inner Tr?ndelag in pre‐Christian times. It was also the place where the first church (shire church) in Sparbyggjafylke was erected. At Mære if anywhere, therefore, it should be possible to test archaeologically the theory about cult continuity from pagan to Christian times.

Under the present church, which dates from the end of the twelfth century, the remains of an early wooden church surrounded by a churchyard were found, together with vestiges of at least two buildings from pre‐Christian times. On the evidence of loose finds, the oldest of these can be dated to the Migration Period (c. A.D. 500). A series of gold plaquettes were found associated with the later of the two buildings. This find is interpreted by the author as indicating that the building may have been a pagan cult building.     

The crystallization of Israeli policy against a return of the Arab refugees: April‐December, 1948

Anti-Americanism has been part of Europe's elite discourse at least since the founding of the United States of America in 1776. However, the congruence of antipathy towards America on the mass and elite levels stems largely from events since 1990. While the policies of the administrations of George W. Bush have contributed to this convergence between elite and mass attitudes, its main reasons have been structural. European anti-Americanism has been accompanied by manifestations of anti-Semitism since the nineteenth century. However, the acuity and acerbity of this link is also a phenomenon of the last fifteen years.     

The shaping of a market for technical know‐how in Latin America 1870–1930

Ingar Kaldahl, Arbeid og miljø ved Follafoss tresliperi og Ranheim papirfabrikk 1920–1970 [Work and work environment at Follafoss pulp‐mill and Ranheim paper mill 1920–1970]. (Trondheim, Norway: Department of History, University of Trondheim, 1994). 525 pp. ISBN 82–7765–002–7.

Britta Lövgren, Hemarbete som politik [Housework as politics. Discussions on housework in Sweden in the 1930s and the 1940s and the establishing of The Home Research Institute (Hemmenes Forskningsinstitut)]. (Stockholm: Almqvist &; Wiksell International, 1993). 232 pp. ISBN 91–22–01556–6.

Sidsel Eriksen, Sester Silfverbergs sorger [Sister Silfverberg's sorrows. A story about how a Sunday‐school teacher became a temperance agitator and a feminist]. (Copenhagen: Spektrum, 1993). ISBN 87–7763–088–2.

Alexandra Ramsay, Huvudstadens hjärta. Filantropi och social förändring i Helsingfors: två fruentimmers föreninger 1848–1865 [The heart of the capital. Philanthropy and social change in Helsingfors ‐ two ladies’ societies 1848–1865]. (Helsingfors: Finska Vetenskaps‐Societeten‐Suomen Tiedeseura, 1993.) 183 pp. ISBN 951–653–248–9.

Elina Katainen (ed.), Kotomaan koko kuva. Kirjoituksia elokuvasta ja 1930‐luvun sosiaalikistoriasta [Full Portrait of the Homeland. Studies in Cinema and the Social History of the 1930s]. (Helsinki: Suomen Historiallinen Seura. Historiallinen Arkisto 100. Helsingin yliopiston talous‐ ja sosiaalihistorian laitos. Talous‐ ja sosiaalihistoriallisia tutkimuksia 2, 1993. 232 pp. ISBN 951–8915–68–7, ISSN 0073–2540.

Erik Tudeer, Det åländska folkets historia V:1 1920–1990 [The History of the Åland Islanders]. (Ekenäs:Ekenäs Tryckeri Aktiebolag, 1993). 287 pp. ISBN 952–9848–02–1.     

Contested Trans‐national Heritage: The Demolition of Changi Prison,Singapore

In 2004 the Singaporean government demolished Changi prison in the face of considerable opposition from the Australian government because of the prison’s association with the captivity of prisoners of war during the Second World War. In opposing the demolition the Australian government was constrained by the fact that it was challenging the accepted right of a sovereign government to manage national heritage sites; by the lack of a shared history surrounding Changi; and the absence of any agreed international regimes governing ‘transnational heritage’. The case of Changi also demonstrates the manner in which heritage significance can be displaced from ‘real’ to ‘un‐real’ (or substitute) sites, that lack the authenticity attributed to them but are invested with a significant emotional power at the level of individual memory and popular culture. In this, Changi is, finally, a testimony to the way in which the construction of memory is a dynamic interactive process between individuals, organisational stakeholders and the state.     

South Africa: The politics of pre‐negotiations, 1989–1991

The international community has hailed South African state president, F.W. de Klerk, a ‘liberator’. De Klerk liberalised the political process and deracialised aspects of state and society. But how committed to racial reform are be and his government? The regime's policies, strategies and tactics over the last two years raise many concerns that the international community has either baulked or simply ignored. The argument that the government must be rewarded and encouraged is fallacious. The South African government reacts only to pressure. The international community acted prematurely by lifting some sanctions and is undermining the prospects for a post‐apartheid society based on equal rights.