Expected job creation across the cultural industries: a sectoral division and its implications for cultural policy

The cultural industries have come to the forefront as the potential job creators of the future. However, building on the concentric circles model and production system view of the cultural industries, we pose that many young and small organizations in the industries lack the motivation, ability, and opportunity to become job creator. We reason that industry location crucially affects job creation expectations. Evidence from an international sample of early-stage entrepreneurs strongly supports this thesis. We identify a divide between entrepreneurs in the ‘core’ cultural industries vis-à-vis those in the ‘non-core’ cultural industries, where the latter group is indistinguishable from entrepreneurs in non-cultural industries in their job creation expectations. Simultaneously, those in the core cultural industries are distinct from others in their expectations to maintain the same number of jobs, rather than grow. These findings have important implications for cultural policy aimed at promoting employment growth in the cultural industries.     

Resilience unpacked – framing of ‘uncertainty’ and ‘adaptability’ in long-term flood risk management strategies for London and Rotterdam

Resilience is held as a promising concept to produce a paradigm shift from traditional flood control to an integration of flood risk management and spatial planning. Central ideas to the resilience narrative are that ‘nothing is certain except uncertainty itself’ and ‘adaptability’ is key to ‘governing the unknown’. However, this terminology is far from clear, yet increasingly used, which raises the question how it is made sense of in practice. To answer this question, we examine two long-term flood risk management strategies in the London and Rotterdam region with a policy framing perspective (i.e. the English Thames Estuary 2100 Plan and the Dutch Delta Programme). In both strategies, uncertainties are a key concern, leading to adaptive strategic plans. Reconstructing the framing processes shows that the English adopted a ‘scientific pragmatism’ frame and the Dutch a ‘joint fact-finding’ frame. While this led to different governance approaches, there are also striking parallels. Both cases use established methods such as scenario planning and monitoring to ‘manage’ uncertainties. Similarly to previous turns in flood risk management, the resilience narrative seems to be accommodated in a technical-rational way, resulting in policy strategies that are maintaining the status quo rather than bringing about a paradigm shift.     

Simultaneous-Equation Systems Involving Binary Choice Variables

Simultaneous-equation systems of continuous variables are well known in the social sciences. Unfortunately, these methods cannot be used when dealing with discrete endogenous variables. Although for discrete types of data a broad range of methods and techniques have been developed, their applicability is restricted to single-equation systems (for example, logit or probit formulations) or to association-type models (log-linear models), mainly because of the lack of suitable estimation methods and computer programs. The basic problem is the multivariate error structure of the endogenous variables. This paper presents a simultaneous-equation system of binary endogenous variables. The model is applied empirically to longitudinal data on mode choice and is compared with the well-known log-linear model.     

Networking nature,or serengeti behind the dikes

Nowadays, wildlife has no chance to be conserved and maintained without the helping hand of man. Ambitious plans to adopt an offensive rather than defensive approach to conservation by creating ‘new nature’ led to initiatives to build ecological networks, from the local, through the regional and the national to the European level. Nature policy in the Netherlands aims to realize a National Ecological Network that is linked up with a projected Pan‐European Ecological Network. This article also discusses the social conflicts engendered by this policy and the ambivalent cultural reactions to which the deliberate ‘production’ of nature gives rise.     

Engineering Contractors in the Chemical Industry. The Development of Ammonia Processes, 1910–1940

Ammonia is the crucial intermediate for the production of nitrogen fertilisers. BASF, today still one of the largest chemical companies in the world, was the first company to develop a process for the synthesis of ammonia from its compounds hydrogen and nitrogen: the well‐known Haber–Bosch process. Other processes were developed as well in the 1910s and ’20s but these technologies have often been classified as ‘imitations’, neglecting the crucial role they played in the take‐off of the fertiliser industry in the late 1920s and neglecting engineering contractors, companies that specialised in the design and construction of plants for the process industries. Engineering contractors diffused ammonia synthesis across the world and enabled the take‐off of the fertiliser industry. This paper attempts to show the role engineering contractors can play in the chemical industry and attempts to give a more balanced account of the history of ammonia synthesis by focusing on the fertiliser industry instead of BASF.     

A testimony of Carolingian rule? The Codex epistolaris carolinus,its historical context,and the meaning of imperium

In the preface to the Carolingian collection of papal letters, known as the Codex epistolaris carolinus, the word imperium is used in the context of describing what is in the collection. In this article, I shall argue that a reinterpretation of the preface's statement about what imperium refers to will shed a different light on the CC as a collection in its entirety. What imperium refers to exactly can be debated, yet studying the Codex carolinus as a Carolingian product of its time, in combination with a reappraisal of its preface, may help to understand the source's historical context and its value to the Carolingian court. As I hope to demonstrate, the CC was an essentially purposeful collection, which underlined the shared history of the Carolingian family and the papacy in Rome.     

Which national group will I identify myself with? The role of preferred and perceived identity representations

Research shows that the more people identify with a national in‐group, the more their citizenship representation becomes in line with the citizenship discourse attached to this national‐identity. However, although national identification may lead to a preference for a specific citizenship representation, national identification might itself depend on preexisting citizenship representation preferences. In line with this, a longitudinal study among Flemish‐Belgian high‐school students (N = 275) showed reciprocal relations between national identification and citizenship representation. A second study among Flemish‐Belgian high‐school students (N = 407) then showed that strength of national identification does not simply depend on preexisting citizenship representation preferences but on the (mis)match between such preferences and the citizenship representation perceived to be attached to a national‐identity. In addition, results showed that the relation between national identification and out‐group attitudes depends on the national‐identity under consideration.     

Cross-Border Differences and Unfamiliarity: Shopping Mobility in the Dutch-German Rhine-Waal Euroregion

Many international differences can be experienced in shopping spaces on both sides of a national border. Other languages, unfamiliar goods and unknown spatial codes are only a few of the physical-functional and socio-cultural differences that could cause exciting and stimulating situations but could also be perceived as problematic and deterring. This paper analyses perceptions, motivations and practices of cross-border (non-)shoppers and provides insights into ways in which people from cross-border regions deal with differences and the extent to which they interact across borders. The aim is to both theoretically and empirically substantiate the dynamic concept of (un)familiarity by scrutinizing the impact of “push”, “pull”, “keep” and “repel” factors on shopping (im)mobility in the Dutch-German Rhine-Waal Euroregion. These factors are seen as rooted in dynamic processes of constructing, deconstructing and reconstructing differences between places on both sides of the border. In so doing, attention is paid to changing shopping practices and motivations and influencing changing perceptions of international differences. As such, the paper also discusses “familiarization processes” in cross-border regions. The concluding section provides critical reflections on the current European policy approach towards cross-border regional development. In fact, the paper ends with a plea for more instead of less borders, as borders are markers of international differences which could promote cross-border mobility.