Observations on the Development of Small Private Enterprises in Russia

A prominent Western specialist on the Russian economy presents an up-to-date overview of the country's small private business enterprises, here defined as registered enterprises employing up to 200 workers. Navigating through the inadequacies of the statistical evidence, the author presents and analyzes new data on size, employment, branch structure, geographical distribution, and related economic indices covering developments through the end of 1996. The paper highlights a number of factors that repress and impede development of small private enterprises, identifying among the principal obstacles arbitrary government regulation and punitive inspections involving extortion. Remedial measures in taxation and crime prevention as well as other forms of assistance are proposed and discussed. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: Ml3, P31, P42. 2 tables, 31 references.     

Establishing an Ideologically Coherent History

This article analyses the historical culture of the Swedish Social Democratic Worker’s Party (SAP) during its formation in the last decades of the 19th century. Utilizing the theoretical concepts of myth and conceptual metaphor, the sense-making aspects of historical narration are studied, especially the way coherent stories are told, in which the movement under formation is made part of a long history leading to a desirable future. The SAP utilized history both morally-defensively and tactically-offensively. The moral use of history depicts Jesus, Münster, and the French Revolution, establishing the righteousness of revolt. The revolutions of 1848 and the Paris Commune, during which the workers are seen as acting more independently, are depicted in a way that draws attention to tactical aspects; lessons are learned on how the workers should act in a revolutionary situation. As has been shown to be the case regarding national narratives, the sense-making mechanisms of historical narration also tend to appeal to issues of identity. The metaphorical conceptualization of ideas and movements as individuals and families further underlines these issues.     

Stone anchors from the Mediterranean coasts of Anatolia, Turkey: underwater surveys and archaeometrical investigations

This study is mainly based on the expeditions and underwater study of stone anchors from the Cilician coast, Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology and the Kaš Uluburun wreck. The stone anchors found on the Cilician coast are very similar to eastern Mediterranean stone anchors with respect to shape and characteristics. The stone anchors from BMUA and KUW were examined by thin section and XRD analysis. They are made of volcanic, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. The study indicates that the anchors are similar to others found in the Mediterranean.     

Collaboration for Local Economic Development: Business Networks,Politics and Universities in Two Swedish Cities

In this article we want to show how conceptions about collaboration for local eocnomic development in Sweden are constructed on national and local levels. We also show how these conceptions have been realized in two different company networks; in the city of Östersund (“Odenskog företagsstaden”) and in the city of Karlskrona (“Telecom City”). In politics and research, local collaboration or cluster formation are viewed as important tools and levers for local economic development. However, we argue that the local labour markets and unemployment rates in our case studies do not differ significantly, despite very different strategies for collaboration. Therefore, we suspect that the political focus on collaboration is a way of legitimizing the change in regional policy rather than a delegation of real power to the local level. If this continues, we fear that the current regional policy is reduced to a discourse of popular concepts rather than a real instrument for local economic development.     

自然环境与云南历史文化城镇形象设计

云南复杂多样的自然环境对当地历史文化城镇的形象构成有着普遍而深刻的影响。考虑自然环境特点的云南历史文化城镇形象设计应遵循尊重和顺应自然的亲和原则,将自然与人文因素相结合的综合性原则,以及将城镇与其所在的自然环境统一考虑的整体性原则。同时要高度关注自然环境在城镇理念形象构成中的重要作用。在城镇视觉形象设计中,要注重城乡景观协调的整体效果,反映其田园山水城镇特色;注重三维景观效果;注重视觉体验的心理特点分析,组织景观层次系列;注重对城镇建筑色彩的控制。     

Predetermined for Predestination? On the Assumed Notion of Predestination in the Dead Sea Scrolls

The present article argues that the concept of predestination does not on the whole lend itself to Qumran studies. Unlike the writings of Augustine and Calvin, the scrolls contain nothing like a doctrine of predestination. The article reviews several texts from 1QS, 1QH, and CD, generally understood to reflect predestination, and suggests other ways of describing and interpreting the material.