Performing dialogical Dutchness: negotiating a national imaginary in parenting guidance

In contemporary Europe, national identities are fiercely contested and governments have sought ways to strengthen national identification. Notwithstanding this European pattern, government policies are implemented differently and belonging to the nation comes to involve different images and enactments across contexts. In the Netherlands, especially, belonging to the nation is at stake in many high‐profile public and political struggles. In this context, a pervasive public imaginary we call ‘dialogical Dutchness’ represents the Dutch as distinctly anti‐nationalist and open to difference. This raises the question whether national boundaries actually become traversable in view of such a national imaginary. How does one become a Dutch subject if Dutchness entails not being nationalist? Through the analysis of a Dutch social policy practice – state‐provided parenting courses – we show how dialogical Dutchness is negotiated and transformed in actual enactments of national difference and belonging. Although dialogical Dutchness foregrounds openness to difference and valorises discussion, it comes to perpetuate and substantiate boundaries between those who belong to the nation and those whose belonging is still in question.     

The geography of transnational adoption: kin and place in globalization

International adoption involves crossing borders; it invokes space and geography as adoptive parents imagine distant countries, as children are moved from one nation to another, and as adoptees and their families return to their countries of origin. The spatiality of belonging and identity – but also of trauma and violence – are central concerns for the people involved and to the operations of their cultural, political, and legal practice. Yet surprisingly, cultural geographers have not yet developed a conceptualization of transnational adoption that theorizes it as a constitutive aspect of geographies of migration, domestic geographies, and geography of childhood. In this issue we seek to set out an agenda for the cultural and political geographies of transnational adoption. We do so by discussing three interrelated themes: the adoption-migration nexus, geographies of relatedness, and the biopolitics of mobility.     

Concentrations of copper,zinc and lead as indicators of hearth usage at the Roman town of Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester,Hampshire, UK)

Although prima facie evidence for non-ferrous metal-working in the form of slag, crucibles, moulds, etc is present at the Roman town of Calleva Atrebatum at Silchester Hampshire, UK it has not yet been stratigraphically associated with in situ hearths; this can make the location of metal-working difficult to determine. This in turn raises the further question of the range of function of hearths in this urban context. The present study uses a combination of archaeological and analytical methods to attempt to determine the use of several hearth and hearth-related contexts within the on-going excavation at Insula IX. Using X-ray fluorescence (XRF) we were able to distinguish between probable industrial and domestic hearths based on elemental concentrations; for example locally elevated metal concentrations, in particular of copper, show evidence for the probable working of copper alloys at Silchester. Metals were found to accumulate in the silty layers associated with hearth platforms indicating that the tiles themselves do not appear to absorb metal spatter.     

Urban revitalization in the Netherlands: Current trends versus actual policies

The paper focuses at the discrepancy between actual urban policies and current spatial socio‐economic developments. Three discrepancies are discussed: homogeneous concepts versus developments directed at heterogeneity; economic seduction policies versus comprehensive developments; and small‐scale policies versus higher level developments. Basic to the current spatial trends is the evolution of a large‐scale urban network. This results in a less hierarchical urban structure and a heterogenization of economic centres and living areas which occurs both within and between urban places. Because of this, the steering possibilities of hierarchic organized urban policies are hampered. In contrast to these developments, urban policy in the Netherlands has a hierarchical nature and focuses heavily on the traditional dominant urban nodes. The present phase of policy, ‘urban management’, illustrates this. An adaption of the spatial framework of policy is needed. The paper also shows that present policies haue a too narrow economic perspective which leads to an underestimation of present and future problems related to the labour and housing market. A plea is made for an explicit dynamic approach to urban revitalization in which the normative and instrumental function is stressed. Moreover, the suggested distinction between efficiency and equity is rejected The article is based on a survey of current trends and future research needs under the authority of the Advisory Council for the Programming of Future Directions in Spatial Research in the Netherlands.     

Book reviews

Serviços e Desenvolvimento numa Região em Mudança (Services and Development in a Changing Region). Comissão de Coordenação da Região Centro (Ed.), Coimbra, Comissão de Coordmação da Região Centro, 1993, 443 pp, ISBN 972 659 040 0.

Technology Transfer in Europe. David Charles and Jeremy Howells, London, Belhaven Press, 1992, 256 pp., £35.00, ISBN 1 85293 160 4.

Technology and Economic Development. The Dynamics of Local, Regional and National Change. E. J. Malecki, Harlow, Longman Scientific & Technical; New York, John Wiley, 1991, 495 pp., ISBN 0 470 21723 5.

The Rise of Meso Government in Europe. L. J. Sharpe (Ed.), London, Sage Publications, 1993, 327 pp., £45.00, ISBN 0 8039 8776 5.

British Urban Policy and the Urban Development Corporation. Rob Imrie and Huw Thomas (Eds), London, Paul Chapman, 1993, 216 pp., £15.50 pb, ISBN 1 85396 207 4.     

Shortest Distances in a Modified Transportation Network

Taking as the starting point an undirected source network and a set of possible new links that can be used to extend the source network, a method is proposed to determine, by simple inspection of a matrix tableau, all shortest distances in any extended network, without using a shortest path algorithm. In consequence, this method may be a useful tool for analyzing and judging network extensions. In particular, computation time can be saved in many complex network optimization methods that use shortest path algorithms. The computer experiments show that the method is feasible even when an extended network may differ from the source network by several dozens of branches.