Welcome to the club! An exploratory study of service accessibility in commodity housing estates in Guangzhou,China

In post-reform China, gated commodity housing estates play a crucial role in the provision of urban services. Such collective service provision is criticized in the urban studies literature, because ‘club goods’ are thought to exclude people that do not live in gated communities. This paper reflects on the global relevance of that argument with an exploratory study in Guangzhou, China. We argue that access to collective services is structured in local social practices, involving diverse actors and specific rules and resources. Discussions on the exclusionary effects of service provision through gated communities should therefore focus on the characteristics of these practices of access in specific cities. Employing this perspective, the paper shows that in Guangzhou at least two mechanisms partly ease the exclusion of non-residents from club goods. On the one hand, municipal government maintains a considerable role in service management, mediating exclusion from services for people who do not live in commodity housing estates. On the other hand, generally the management of services is separated from housing estate management, and service providers try to increase profits through service provision to non-residents. We discuss the consequences of such mediations for an adjusted research agenda on service provision by gated communities.     

Obtaining Black Carbon—A Simple Method for the Safe Removal of Mineral Components from Soils and Archaeological Layers

In this study, we present a novel, safe method for how to remove inorganic components from soil samples studied for archaeological purposes, in order to improve studies of the distribution of black carbon in the sedimentary record. As the depositional history of this material depends on the interaction between humans and the natural environment, this method can be widely used in archaeology, landscape archaeology, palaeoecology, environmental geology and sedimentology. Our method does not require the use of dangerous hydrofluoric acid, which is commonly used for the removal of silicon oxide from such samples; therefore, this procedure allows even less chemically trained scientists to analyse soil samples with an increased level of work safety.     

The effects of ageing and urbanisation on China’s future rural and urban populations

This paper estimates China’s future population and labour force by developing a novel forecasting model for population. It combines information about age-specific parameters on fertility and mortality for both rural and urban areas using information about rural–urban migration and the transformation of rural areas into urban ones. This model takes into account the effects of urbanisation on changes in the age structure of the Chinese population; and provides separate projections on the rural and urban populations. Our findings show that (i) the shares of people aged 65 and over, in China’s rural and urban populations, will double between 2010 and 2030; this implies that the ageing problem in rural areas will continue to be more serious than in urban areas; (ii) the rural labour force will shrink by 45 per cent, between 2010 and 2030, while the urban labour force will grow by 34 per cent; and (iii) China’s urbanisation rate will increase to 71 per cent by 2030.     

Variability of Ceramic Production and Consumption on the Greek Mainland During the Middle Stages of the Late Bronze Age: The Waterpots from the Menelaion,Sparta

The article examines pottery groups manufactured in non‐Mycenaean traditions from the site of the Menelaion in Laconia (southern Peloponnese, Greece) during the middle stages of the Late Bronze Age. Pottery traditions are first defined using macroscopic study of surface and break features. Two distinct handmade traditions, and another one employing the wheel but with some links to traditional handmade pottery manufactured on the island of Aegina, were recognized and subjected to petrographic analysis. Its results confirmed that potters’ choices regarding clay preparation were different in the case of each identified tradition, being most distinct for the largest group of handmade undecorated water jars. The study highlights survival of pottery traditions with roots in the Middle Helladic period well into the Late Bronze Age, a fact that has not received appropriate attention in the scholarly discourse. It captures the very last stage of their existence, as just a few decades later the production and consumption are entirely dominated by Mycenaean pottery.     

Merchants on the margins: fifteenth-century Bruges and the informal market

During the late medieval period, Bruges acted as the prime hub of international trade in north-western Europe, with the town of Sluys as its outport. Trade along the Zwin, the waterway connecting the city to the sea, was subject to a series of tolls and a set of stringent and comprehensive staple restrictions, stipulating that all goods imported had to be sold on the Bruges market. The concentration of commercial activities which resulted from these rules allowed merchants with the necessary capital to trade more cheaply than elsewhere. For those with more modest means and ambitions, the trip along tollbooths to the heavily regulated and institutionalised staple market only jeopardised the profitability of their endeavours. Throughout the fifteenth century, local traders, international shipping crews, commercial staff and professional smugglers cut transaction costs by evading the restrictions of the staple and commercial taxation in Sluys. This article discusses the size of this informal market on the margins of Bruges' jurisdiction, analyses the backgrounds and motivations of its visitors and reconstructs the strategies they used to evade punishment.