English Regionalization and Sustainability: Towards the Development of an Integrated Approach to Strategic Environmental Assessment

Central to this article is the suggestion that modern planning and development frameworks in England are currently at a potentially productive, although problematic turning point. Whilst on the one hand the UK is attempting to make the legislative and institutional changes necessary to facilitate the process of regionalization and devolution, it is at the same time facing the challenge of ensuring the necessary levels of inter-agency cohesion and integration required for the delivery of the meta-objectives at the heart of sustainable development. Of particular concern for the English regions is the increasing complexity of organizational relations, the fragmentary nature of provisions, the potential mismatch between the need to preserve environmental welfare and at the same time ensure regional economic competitiveness, and more fundamentally, the failure to provide an appropriate mechanism for the evaluation of sustainable development goals. In the light of these challenges, the authors highlight the value of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) as a mechanism for improving the environmental quality of decision-making and make recommendations as to how the regional level of decision-making can provide an effective platform for the development of an SEA system which is capable of reconciling the sustainability conflicts derived from different tiers of decision-making. Within this discussion, suggestions are made as to the manner in which current ideas for introducing sustainability appraisal for Regional Planning Guidance should be amended.     

ANALYSIS,TESTING AND DESIGN OF STEEL ROOF DECK DIAPHRAGMS FOR DUCTILE EARTHQUAKE RESISTANCE

An experimental program was conducted to study the inelastic response of steel roof deck diaphragms for low-rise steel buildings subjected to seismic loading. Tests were performed on 3.6 m×6.1 m diaphragm specimens made of corrugated steel deck panels. The parameters examined were the thickness and configuration of the sheet steel panels, the type and spacing of the fasteners, the applied loading history and the influence of end lap joints. Diaphragms built with screwed side lap fasteners and nailed deck-to-frame connectors exhibited a pinched hysteretic behaviour, but could sustain large inelastic deformation cycles with limited strength degradation. This type of diaphragm construction could be designed to resist earthquake effects in the inelastic range. Higher shear resistance and less pinching was observed for systems that included welded with washer connections. However, their strength decreased rapidly after the peak load was reached, and hence, these systems should be designed for limited inelastic response. Deck systems with button punched side laps and frame welds without washers showed a brittle response and should be designed to remain elastic under severe earthquake motions. The inelastic demand was found to increase when the spacing of the fasteners was reduced. Specimens constructed with an internal overlap joint exhibited extensive warping of the cross section mainly due to the shorter panel length.     

THE ALLURE OF DARK TIMES: MAX WEBER,POLITICS, AND THE CRISIS OF HISTORICISM

This article argues that realist invocations of Weber rely on an unrealistic reading of Weber's realism. In order to escape the allure of Weber's dramatic posture of crisis, we place his seminal lecture on “Politics as a Vocation” (1919) in its historical and philosophical context of a revolutionary conjuncture of dramatic proportions, compounded by a broader crisis of historicism. Weber's rhetoric, we argue, carries with it not only the emotion of crisis but is also the expression of a deeper intellectual impasse. The fatalistic despair of his position had already been detected by some of his closest contemporaries for whom Weber did not appear as a door‐opener to a historically situated theory of political action but as a telling and intriguing impasse. Although the disastrous history of interwar Europe seems to confirm Weber's bleakest predictions, it would be perverse to elevate contingent failure to the level of retrospective vindication.     

A century on the edge: from Cold War to hot world, 1945–2045

The article argues that the century from 1945 is likely to prove seminal in terms of human progress. It marks the period when the human community has to come to terms with its capacity for self‐destruction through the invention of weapons of mass destruction and its ability to exceed the homeostatic capabilities of the global ecosystem in an era of deep socio‐economic divisions. Two‐thirds of the way through this century the progress has been mixed. Nuclear war has been avoided more by luck than by wisdom, there remain risks of nuclear proliferation and it is not evident that humankind has acquired the ability to deal with the destructive potential of bio‐, nano‐ and other emerging technologies. Recognition of the extent of anthropogenic impacts on ecosystem stability is evident, but not at the level necessary for the radical responses required. Even so, there are signs of progress and potential for change, suggesting that the final one‐third of the century will be singularly important in ensuring long‐term emancipation and environmental sustainability.     

Our Schools,Our Country: American Evangelicals,Public Schools,and the Supreme Court Decisions of 1962 and 1963

American evangelicals have long maintained a tense and paradoxical relationship to mainstream American culture. This article explores the effect of the 1962 and 1963 United States Supreme Court school decisions on that perennial tension. Unlike many conservatives, conservative evangelicals greeted the court's 1962 Engel decision to ban state‐written prayer in public schools with cautious approval; however, evangelicals saw the 1963 Schempp decision to ban Bible reading and the Lord's Prayer from those schools as an affront. The unique relationship between evangelical belief and America's public school system forced evangelicals to reconsider their special place in both schools and society as a whole. They concluded with surprising unanimity that those school decisions had done more than forced evangelical belief out of America's public schools; the decisions had pushed evangelicals themselves out of America's mainstream culture.     

REIMAGINING ROMAN PORTS AND HARBOURS: THE PORT OF ROMAN LONDON AND WATERFRONT ARCHAEOLOGY

This paper explores some theoretically informed ways in which to use the rich evidence relating to ports, harbours and other waterfront installations in archaeology. It argues that studies of waterfront structures within the specialisms of nautical/maritime and wetland archaeology are extremely important in their own right, but they could also be used to explore broader issues connected with their use and context. These include the cultural and religious significance of water and its dangers, the symbolic significance of landscape change, the relationship between people and their environment and the negotiation of the land/water interface. Examining the evidence of the port of Roman London as a case study, this paper explores the archaeology in its local setting and addresses a number of subjects relating to both its temporal and spatial position. It focuses on the religious significance of water and the implications of altering waterscapes through artificial construction.