Revisionism Reconsidered: 'Property-owning Democracy' and Egalitarian Strategy in Post-War Britain

Revisionist socialists of the 1950s and 1960s are typicallydepicted as advocates of the ‘Keynesian welfare state’route to economic equality. This article argues that this isan oversimplification: while the revisionists supported thewelfare state, they also aimed to promote equality by redistributingprivate property and expanding social ownership, endorsing anegalitarian version of a ‘property-owning democracy’.The article first discusses the political ideals and calculationsthat motivated the revisionists’ interest in this modelof egalitarian strategy and then examines in turn the threemutually reinforcing strands of policy that this goal generated:greater progressive taxation of wealth; measures to diffuseprivate property ownership and access to marketable skills;and the expansion of novel forms of social ownership.     

Questioning the credibility and capacity of community‐based resource management

This paper reviews and critiques a potential innovation in resource and environmental management as a means of stimulating further research and refinement. Given the perceived limitations of top‐down, centralized management of natural resources, calls for the devolution of authority for local resources to local communities have increasingly been expressed. Proponents of community‐based resource management argue that, situating decision‐making closer to the place of resource use and subjecting decision‐makers to the repercussions of their decisions creates the potential for more flexible and prudent resource management. Further, by empowering communities to develop their own strategies for local economic development, greater community stability may be achieved. However, neither of these potentials will be realized if the credibility and capacity of communities are assumed rather than interrogated. These hypothesized contingent conditions of effective community‐based resource management are described and illustrated based on two examples in western Canada in which communities have been empowered to determine the use of local resources: the siting of a hazardous‐waste treatment facility near the town of Swan Hills, Alberta; and the development of the Community Forest Pilot Project in British Columbia. These examples raise a series of concerns and questions that suggest a need for further, in‐depth investigation. Ultimately, by identifying barriers to effective community‐based resource management, a more refined model of this potentially innovative approach can be fostered. Cette dissertation étudie et critique une innovation potentielle quant à la gestion de l’environnement et des ressources dans le but de stimuler des recherches plus approfondies et d’affiner les résultats. Étant donné les limitations perçues d’une gestion centralisée et descendante des ressources naturelles, on demande de plus en plus fréquemment que les collectivités locales soient responsables de la gestion des ressources locales. Les partisans d’une gestion des ressources par les collectivités avancent qu’en rapprochant la prise de décision du lieu d’utilisation des ressources et en soumettant les décideurs aux répercussions de leurs décisions, on favorise potentiellement une gestion plus souple et plus prudente des ressources. De plus, en habilitant les collectivités à déterminer leurs propres stratégies de développement économique local, une plus grande stabilité des collectivités est possible. Toutefois, ni l’un ni l’autre de ces potentiels ne seront réalisés si l’on admet sans les mettre en question la crédibilité et la capacité de gestion de ces collectivités. Ces conditions contingentes d’une gestion efficace des ressources par les collectivités sont décrites et illustrées par deux exemples provenant de l’Ouest du Canada, où les communautés ont toute discrétion quant à l’utilisation des ressources locales : l’implantation d’un centre de traitement des déchets dangereux près de la ville de Swan Hills, dans l’Alberta, et l’exécution du Community Forest Pilot Project (projet pilote de forêt domaniale) en Colombie britannique. Ces exemples soulèvent une série de questions et de préoccupations qui suggèrent le besoin de nouvelles recherches plus approfondies. En fin de compte, en identifiant ce qui s’oppose à une gestion efficace des ressources par les collectivités, on pourra stimuler l’élaboration d’un modèle plus perfectionné de cette démarche potentiellement innovante.     

“Transcending Without Transcendence”: Utopianism and an Ethos of Hope

Human geography has recently witnessed an emergent interest in the intertwined problematics of how to be utopian and how to remain hopeful or optimistic. This paper aims to introduce a type of immanent utopianism that follows from a dynamic, open, conception of utopia. It revolves around thinking through how an ethos of hope functions in relation to the multiple problems and tasks of utopia/utopianism. The paper describes how Ernst Bloch re‐defined the utopian as a type of process and then outlines a style of immanent utopianism based on an explicit ethos of hope. The result is a sensitivity to matter as utopological, as containing an immanent reference to a not‐yet beyond, that obliges us to practice a utopianism that intervenes in the emergence, and change, of something better in a world that takes place “in hazard”. In conclusion the paper argues for a utopic geography based on being, and becoming, hopeful that is itself a response to an ethical imperative to give and find hope in the context of the tragedy and injustice of suffering.     

Embeddedness,context, proximity and control

In this paper, we discuss the notion of embeddedness in relation to knowledge and knowledge processes. We distinguish embeddedness in terms of institutional contexts, in terms of clusters and networks, and in terms of spatial proximity. An overview of empirical cases of knowledge processes leads to the conclusion that spatial proximity is not inherently important to these processes. Spatial concentration of knowledge processes may nevertheless occur for other reasons.     

Palaeolithic and Neolithic Occupations in the Témara Region (Rabat, Morocco): Recent Data on Hominin Contexts and Behavior

In the 1970s, the discoveries of Palaeolithic human remains in the caves of Dar es Soltane 2, El Harhoura 1 and Les Contrebandiers reinforced interest in the sites of the Témara region. These sites, often cited, have been the object of numerous investigations which have produced a major contribution to the prehistory of Morocco. Over the past 15 years, research at two key sites, El Mnasra and El Harhoura 2, have considerably enhanced the available data for this region. Preliminary results obtained from excavations since 2001, allow us to present the palaeoenvironmental framework and describe the technological behaviour of prehistoric groups within a re-evaluated stratigraphic context. The microfaunal and macrofaunal assemblages are analysed according to systematics, taphonomy and palaeoecology. The lithic and bone industries document patterns of raw material acquisition and transformation. Within the context of the history of more than 60 years of research in the region of Témara, this contribution allows us to approach the question of Palaeolithic population on the basis of recent, and for the most part new, data and evidence.     

‘The Chiefs’ Country': a Malaitan View of the Conflict in Solomon Islands

ABSTRACT This account of the recent conflict in Solomon Islands, based on personal experience, offers a local Malaitan perspective on the historical causes and course of events which has not been well represented in other published accounts. It describes the Malaitan settlement of Guadalcanal and the failure of government to deal with the resulting grievances in terms of traditional values which also informed the author's own responses to the conflict and its resolution. The Malaitan community is shown as forced into politically‐manipulated militancy through neglect of the conciliatory role of clan leaders as chiefs. As a perspective from one side of the conflict, the paper invites responses and discussion of indigenous histories.