Matthew Paris on the writing of history

Matthew Paris was one of the most prolific and influential historians of the central middle ages. Matthew's significance rests both on the range of his interests and the scope of his writing. Yet, even basic questions about his outlook on writing, his concept of history, or the relationship with his audience, have hardly been asked. These issues are central themes of this article, and will be used to consider wider questions about Matthew's concept of truth, his handling of information, and his view of the world around him. The article, furthermore, extends coverage beyond the Chronica majora or Matthew's vernacular writings to consider his concept of history as it emerges from the totality of his oeuvre.     

THE LOGIC OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF RURAL POLITICS: POLITICAL DISCOURSES ON RURALITY IN NORWAY

Two competing discourses emerge from a careful reading of parliamentary debates in Norway on rural development. One regards rural values as intrinsic, while the other regards the rural as an actor in a play about economic growth. The 'growth' discourse has economic growth as its nodal point and fo-cuses on the freedom of an individual to establish a business wherever he or she wishes, and to migrate to any preferred destination. The 'intrinsic value' discourse places the value of rural settlements and cultures as its nodal point and focuses on allegedly forced migration, a nature-based economy, and local freedom of action. During the neoliberal period, starting about 1980 the strength of the intrinsic value discourse has been increasingly displaced by the growth discourse. The latter seems to match general social changes such as neoliberalism and globalization more than the former. However, analysing the fight between these two discourses is not exhaustive. A broader analytic perspective is needed if we want to understand the logic of how the meaning of rurality comes about. The meaning of rurality in Norwegian politics is made through the way the competing discourses link up to 'nondiscursive' topics that originate and evolve outside the discourses on Norwegian rural politics. We claim that topics which include economic safety and national identity/nation-state are more or less fundamental to understanding the logic of the production of the concrete discourses of rurality in Norwegian politics. We provide evidence that rural change is contingent not only on the meaning-making process in parliamentary debates, but on the way truth claims made by politicians are linked to general national and global issues.     

Exploring the Multiple Roles of Lund University in Strengthening Scania's Regional Innovation System: Towards Institutional Learning?

Universities are increasingly seen as potential contributors to regional innovative capacity by serving as local knowledge conduits, bringing global state-of-the-art science and technology into the region. In practice, however, more active university engagement with their regional innovation systems is not as straightforward as it may seem. The article uses examples from a successful case by which less successful regions could be inspired. Our analysis considers how various forms of technological learning intersecting within Lund University around three distinct sectoral engagement efforts have been built up and how this created new structural regional innovation capacity.     

Offshore Mineral Development in the Russian Barents Sea

Two Norwegian researchers examine the forces alternatively driving and hindering offshore hydrocarbon development in the Russian sector of the Barents Sea. The paper describes exploration activities beginning during the Soviet period and extending to the present, the status of the major development projects financed in part with foreign capital, and conflicting regional and central government interests involved in such development. Coverage includes the emergence of Rosshelf, an oil/gas conglomerate formed to facilitate defense conversion activities of major naval shipyards. Critical to analysis of the projects' potential is assessment of alternative gas supplies and energy development strategies. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O13, Q40, R10. 3 figures, 1 table, 63 references.     

NORWEGIAN SUBSIDIZED THEATRES – FAILURE OR FUTURE?

During the period 1972–1999, the number of Norwegian subsidized theatres was more than doubled, while attendance was largely unchanged. Mainly due to new institutions established during this period, the number of performances increased by about 45%. With about the same total attendance, this means that the attendance per performance decreased by about the same percentage. The number of employees (not counting engaged persons) increased by about 60%. All in all this led to an almost trebling of both costs and public support in real terms. This study deals with possible explanations of this distressing development. Contrary to what is commonly assumed, the new theatres, with cost‐disadvantages of small scale, are only part of the explanation. We provide two main explanations: the crowding out of the subsidized theatres by AV‐media and other performing art institutions, like private theatres and independent performing arts groups, and by other entertainment institutions. In addition, costs have increased substantially due to slow adjustment to reduction in demand, costly arrangements to counter the crowding out effects, and institutional sclerosis. The latter seems to be due to various cost‐increasing arrangements commonly found in public institutions with soft budget constraints, as well as in private monopolies and private firms sheltered by regulations of various kinds.     

Comments on archaeology into the 1990s

This article focuses on the complexity of Early Bronze Age weapon depositions. While some of the deposited weapons have been disabled by intentional breakage, others seem to be more or less unused. A plausible explanation for the variability is that the surrender of lethal weapons to land or water was a means of coping with their power or agency – their individuality. We suggest that weapons, in their capacity as extensions of warriors’ bodies, may have substituted for humans in ritual depositions. The metalworkers also come into play, due to their capacities in the processes of making weapons and shaping weapon technologies. Although we consider the three depositions that we discuss to relate to rituals on the occasion of warfare, we are not aiming for a uniform explanation. In the same way as the patterned human behaviour of a ritual is a means of subsuming individual events into a greater order, so a focus on general patterns may subsume the complexity of the past by ignoring the many different events leading to, e.g., the deposition of metalwork. Far from seeing these perspectives as contradictory, we try to use three well-documented individual cases to shed light on the variability within the pattern.