THE EVALUATION OF COPRODUCTION PROGRAMS

This article evaluates the benefits and costs of local coproduction of services. Coproduction is understood as active participation beyond the normal requirements of citizenship by individuals or groups in the delivery of municipal services intended to raise the quality and/or amount of their provision. The benefits and costs of coproduction programs are examined in six areas: tax savings, service effectiveness, citizen participation, motivating service-directed behavior, training and coordination arrangements, and service equity.     

A DIALECTICAL APPROACH TO RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PLANNING

This paper reports on the methodology and an application of a dialectical approach to research and development, planning. The methodology features a structured debate followed by argumentation analysis. The argumentation analysis in turn is followed by an assessment of the plausibility of the arguments. The application involved using the methodology to assess the level of funding for research and development for a transportation system that would employ advanced technology. The Dialectic Inquiry process, and specifically, the plausibility rating activity, were seen as valuable aids for policy analysis.     

PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONISM AND TAX BURDENS: ARE THEY RELATED?*

One factor that has affected state and local politics since the 1960's is the growth of public sector unionism. Conventional wisdom assumes that the “fist generation” of public unionism has been a major cause of the fiscal problems faced by many state and local governments in the 1970's. State level cross-sectional analysis (1960–71) questions this widely held assumption with respect to the impact of strike activity and collective bargaining legislation on the tax burden across the states.     

Developments in Rural Life on the Eastern African Coast,a.d. 700–1500

The eastern African coast is known for its Swahili “stonetowns.” Archaeological study of stonetowns has overshadowed that of Swahili rural life, and how it reformulated in the context of urban transformations after a.d. 1000. To help redress that imbalance, we focus here on village research carried out in a Swahili heartland—Pemba Island, Tanzania—in the context of two archaeological projects. We feature four settlements: later 1st millennium Kimimba village and its large, trading village neighbor, Tumbe; and 2nd millennium Kaliwa village, neighbor to Chwaka stonetown. Their archaeology, contextualized within a regional landscape, allows us to say new things about the changing nature of rural life on Pemba, and to make a case for the potential of village complexity elsewhere on the Swahili coast.     

Marginalized Potters and Ceramic Compositional Groups: Neutron Activation Analysis of Contemporary Pottery from Tigray,Northern Highland Ethiopia

The study presents the results of neutron activation analysis (NAA) of contemporary pottery from Tigray Regional State, northern highland Ethiopia. This is the first regional-scale study of ceramic composition of Tigray’s pottery and is part of an ethnoarchaeological study of the material and social contexts of pottery production and consumption in Tigray’s Eastern (Misraqawi), Central (Mehakelegnaw), and North-western (Semien Mi’irabawi) zones. The analysis identifies clear compositional groups with strong regional patterns, an encouraging result for the use of NAA to study Tigray’s ancient pottery trade. Significantly, the study further contributes to discussions of how mutually constituted social identities of potters and consumers affect compositional patterning in the distribution of pottery in market networks.     

Modelling Resource Values and Climate Change Impacts to Set Preservation and Research Priorities

ABSTRACT

Climate change impacts will increase in their frequency and severity in the coming decades, resulting in compromised integrity or destruction of thousands of heritage resources. Efforts are needed to identify, record, and study resources that will be affected. To set research and preservation priorities, the vulnerability of resources to climate change impacts and their importance to scientific research, preservation, and other resource values needs to be understood. We advocate a modelling approach which predicts the location, timing, and severity of climate change impacts; identifies resources at risk, their resource values, and opportunity costs; and prioritises research and preservation options based on these assessments. The need for this approach is illustrated with examples from two coastal areas subject to different impacts and hosting different types of heritage resources: the Atlantic coast of Georgia in the United States and the Wismar Bight along the Baltic Sea in northern Germany.     

Zopilotes,Alacranes, y Hormigas (Vultures,Scorpions, and Ants): Animal Metaphors as Organizational Politics in a Nicaraguan Garbage Crisis

While scholars frequently frame conflicts over urban waste in terms of a politics of infrastructure, this article frames such conflicts in terms of a politics of organization. In 2008, self‐employed recyclers in and around Managua, Nicaragua blockaded local dumps in an effort to secure rights to scavenge for resellable material. Over the course of this “garbage crisis”, a material and semiotic entanglement of human labor organization with animal ecology became politically salient. At different points, recyclers were compared to ants (hormigas), vultures (zopilotes), and scorpions (alacranes). State officials, NGOs, and recyclers themselves used these animal metaphors to describe the organization of waste collection. Drawing on theories of value from political ecology and economic anthropology, as well as analysis of the deployment of these “organic” metaphors, we outline an “organizational politics” of urban waste.     

‘Oh motherland I pledge to thee …’: a study into nationalism,gender and the representation of an imagined family within national anthems

In this paper, we argue that beyond understanding nations as imagined communities, the metaphor of an ‘imagined family’ or ‘filial community’ is a more useful concept towards understanding links between gender and nationhood as family relations in four ways: (1) providing a clear, hierarchical structure; (2) prescribing social roles and responsibilities; (3) being linked to positive affective connotations; and (4) reifying social phenomena as biologically determined. In order to empirically substantiate our claim, we will explore the prevalence and use of family metaphors in a key symbol of nationhood discourses. Through a qualitative analysis of national anthems as ‘mnemonics of national identity’, we demonstrate the widespread presence of family metaphors, discussing how they reproduce ideas of family and gender. Finally, we discuss how the ‘imagined family’ as present in anthems and other forms of national representation could inform future studies of nationalism and national politics.     

SENIOR MIGRATION: SPATIAL CONSIDERATIONS OF AMENITY AND HEALTH ACCESS DRIVERS*

This paper extends the literature on amenity migration by focusing on healthcare access for later‐life migrants. Previous studies have strongly suggested that natural amenities are strong pull factors for later‐life migrants, but high natural amenity counties rarely possess the quality healthcare access optimal for elderly migrants. Utilizing a spatial Bayesian estimation strategy, we explicitly consider numerous drivers of later‐life migration to examine the extent to which health access is a driver in location decisions. We find healthcare access measures, including hospital expenditures, hospital beds, and number of doctors, are positively associated with later‐life migration decisions.     

Late Middle Palaeolithic occupations in Ciemna Cave,southern Poland

Recent excavations in Ciemna Cave in the Pr?dnik valley near Ojców, southern Poland have brought to light new stratigraphic and techno-typological evidence concerning Late Middle Palaeolithic groups and their cultural affinities. In 2007, excavations began in the hitherto-unexplored main chamber of Ciemna Cave, with the goal of clarifying the results of previous work in other parts of the cave. During excavation the rocky floor of the cave was reached. About 1000 stone artifacts have been collected to date. Three cultural traditions have been documented: Mousterian, Taubachian, and Micoquian. Within the Micoquian tradition, three cultural levels were observed, which enriches the previous understanding of occupational phases at the site. These findings permit revision of the traditional terms “Pr?dnik industry” and “Pr?dnik technique.”