Are the most productive regions necessarily the most successful? Local effects of productivity growth on employment and earnings

Economists typically celebrate productivity growth as the chief way to improve living standards. Productivity growth may reduce costs, improve quality, or lead to innovation and new products, but if demand is insufficiently elastic, productivity growth can lead to weakening of labor markets. We study county‐level effects of productivity growth and productivity levels on growth in employment, income, and earnings. The results suggest that productivity growth generally suppresses job growth but has boosting effects on earnings and, to a lesser degree, on per‐capita income, although there is considerable variation across geographies and specific outcomes.     

Immigrant Inclusion in the Safety Net: A Framework for Analysis and Effects on Educational Attainment

Across states, there is substantial variation in the degree to which immigrants and their children are offered public assistance. We present a theoretical framework for analyzing the effects of policy decisions about immigrant inclusion. We apply the framework to investigate the effect of the state safety net on educational attainment. We focus on the years following welfare reform in 1996, when states gained considerable autonomy over welfare policy, including decisions about the eligibility of immigrant residents. Leveraging state‐level data from before and after reform, we estimate a difference‐in‐difference model to identify the effect of variation in immigrant inclusivity on educational attainment. We find that when states broaden the inclusivity of the social safety net to immigrants, young Latinos are more likely to graduate from high school. This effect is present beyond the group of Latino residents who receive additional benefits, suggesting that policy decisions about immigrants spill over to broader communities and communicate broader messages about social inclusion to racial and ethnic groups. We find similar patterns among Asian youth, but not among black and non‐Hispanic white youth. We conclude that immigrant inclusion has consequences for the life prospects of the growing population of youth in high‐immigrant ethnic groups.     

Splitting Urban Waters: The Politicisation of Water in Barcelona between Populism and Anti-Populism

The current literature on remunicipalisation is focused either on theoretical concepts (e.g. right to the city, commons, return of the political) or on the “insurgent” actors involved in this process, overlooking the counter-politicisation of the economic agents and the resulting struggles for power and legitimation. This paper examines, by means of an interpretative qualitative methodology and by critically engaging with Ernesto Laclau’s approach to populism, the complexities of the ongoing dialectic of populist and anti-populist antagonism between socio-political actors and private companies, with a focus on the discourse on remunicipalisation of water in Barcelona.     

Ars critica. Der Rhetorlehrer Quintilian als Vorbild für Begriffe und Aufgaben von Kritik in neulateinischen Reden und Schriften Deutschlands im 18.Jahrhundert

Theme of this article is the ancient Roman tradition of criticism based of the standard ">institutio oratoria« of the late Roman teacher of rhetoric Quintilianus and the reception of rhetorical and critical theory among German 18th century philologists. Just like Immanuel Kant's terminology of 'Kritik' the Latin terms critica and ars critica became in the 18th century basic terms for the research in the history of philology and the social importance of this scientific work. The researchers' documentations in the 18th century demonstrate the ancient tradition between criticism and the liberal arts of the trivium which are studies in rethoric, dialectic and grammar.     

The Politics of the Pipe: Clay Pipes and Tobacco Consumption in Galway, Ireland

In this paper, clay pipes and the historical record are used to explore the illicit importation of tobacco in seventeenth-century Galway, Ireland. This is part of a wider tradition of the politics of smoking, including the proliferation of the clay pipe, the widespread smuggling of tobacco, and the overtly political nineteenth-century pipes that touted nationalist emblems. Here, the juxtaposition of the archaeological and historical records locates subversive local agency in the face of overarching colonial mandates. Colonialism, trade, consumption, and identity are linked in an examination of a merchant community's maneuvers through the expanding Atlantic economy and the restricted colonial mandates that marked the world around them.     

One Landscape, Many Experiences: Differing Perspectives of the Temple Districts of Vijayanagara

Landscapes have multiple meanings depending on the perspectives of those who experience them. Uncovering those perspectives for past landscapes depends on multiple lines of evidence, both archaeological and historical. The landscape of the fourteenth- to sixteenth-century south Indian capital of Vijayanagara was the setting for important mythological events, interplays of power between the elite, ritual and pilgrimage for devotees, and ordinary daily activities for residents. This paper explores these different views of the urban landscape through examination of oral traditions and historical data, assessment of architecture and access and routing, and archaeological analysis of grinding stones and ceramics.     

Die „Vergleichende Kurortanalyse“ (VKA)

Kein touristisches Segment ist derzeit durch eine so massive Angebotsexpansion gekennzeichnet wie der Gesundheitstourismus. Allein in Deutschland versuchen sich heute mehr als 350 Heilbäder und Kurorte auf dem Markt der heiß umworbenen Selbstzahler zu positionieren. Aber auch außerhalb der Kurorte entwickelt sich das kur- und gesundheitstouristische Angebot dynamisch. Der nachfrageseitige Markt für gesundheitstouristische Dienstleistungen ist vielversprechend und hat eine weltweite Mobilisierung um den gesundheitsbewußten Touristen in Gang gesetzt. Um in diesem stark wachsenden Markt überhaupt wahrgenommen zu werden, müssen Anbieter mit einem klaren Profil erscheinen, vor allem Heilbäder und Kurorte, die ein eher traditionelles Image aufweisen. Zudem verlangen Investitionsvorhaben oder Wirtschaftsförderungen klare Entscheidungsgrundlagen der langfristigen Positionierung und Spezialisierung. Nicht zuletzt stellt sich die Frage, wie Heilbäder und Kurorte auf Destinations- bzw. Landesebene am Markt präsentiert werden müssen, um sich von anderen Bäderdestinationen zu unterscheiden. Für diese komplexe Aufgabenstellung hat das Europäische Tourismus Institut (ETI) ein abgestimmtes Erhebungs-, Bewertungs- und Analyseinstrument entwickelt, das konsequente Produkt- und Positionierungsentscheidungen für den einzelnen Kurort wie auch das Landes- oder Regionalmarketing ermöglicht. Die Vergleichende Kurortanalyse (VKA) berücksichtigt dabei sowohl die Bedürfnisse des Marktes als auch die spezifische Angebotsausstattung bzw. -attraktivität in den Orten.     

“Don’t call me a Cajun!”: race and representation in Louisiana’s Acadiana region

In southwestern Louisiana, the public sphere is dominated by the image of the Cajuns, presented as a hardy, likable people who have overcome significant obstacles since their arrival as Acadians in the late eighteenth century. Across the cultural region designated “Acadiana,” which comprises 22 counties, nearly 30% of the population is black (or Creole, mixed-race peoples generally identifying as black). Contributions of non-whites to the region’s history are usually not incorporated into the public historical narrative, and the erasure of these groups’ influences on the state’s cultural “gumbo” has profound symbolic and material consequences. Black/Creole residents note that much of their culture – primarily music and foodways – has been repackaged as Cajun or subsumed under the Cajun label and that they are unable to take advantage of the benefits that Creole-oriented tourism could bring to a region in which half of the counties are designated “black high poverty parishes.” Using mixed methods, including interviews, archival analysis, and census data, this paper explores the social, political, and economic consequences of the domination of Cajuns in the south Louisiana memorial and representational landscape and argues that commemorative silences in what Alderman et al. have called the “memorial arena” perpetuate a hegemonic social order.