The limits of civil society in militarised regimes: evidence from the Asia-Pacific

The nature of civil society is transformed by a strong military presence, which occurs in the Asia-Pacific region. While modern civil society survives under military rule through co-optation, veiled resistance or geography, traditional organisations may continue to threaten the state's dominance of political society. This article examines the nature of civil society in two countries in the Asia-Pacific that have recently emerged from direct military rule—Burma and Fiji. It considers the independence of civil society under military rule, how militaries take steps to safeguard their roles in political society, and how democratic postures change during transitions away from military rule. Understanding how militaries preserve their influence provides a better perspective of authoritarian resilience in the region and the limits to democratic reforms.     

Scale, Sovereignty, and Strategy in Environmental Governance

Close examination of the scalar politics of environmental organizations engaged in contesting the terms of neoliberal globalization highlights four limitations of current theorizations of scale in radical geography. First, this body of work has paid little attention to environmental NGOs and movements as important actors in scalar politics. This is not only an empirical gap, but a theoretical one: taking environmental actors and issues into account requires rethinking the ontologies and dynamics in scale theory. Second, recent attention to social reproduction in scale debates must be extended to the reproduction of environmental conditions. Third, sharp analytical distinctions between scalar structuration and the production of nature are untenable and reproduce a culture/nature dualism. Fourth, sharp distinctions between politics within or about established scales, versus politics among scales, are unstable and miss the precise strategies pursued in some politics of scale. These arguments are illustrated and explored via case material drawn from current struggles over efforts to define environmental governance as a form of regulatory expropriation in international trade agreements.     

The Scottish Parliament,Regulation and Land Use Planning

Constitutional reforms are taking place in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. These offer the opportunity to bring about a more effective policy framework for a range of policy areas including land use planning. In Scotland, the introduction of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 could allow the improvement of spatial planning policy and practice in a variety of ways, including bringing a more strategic approach at regional level, introducing a national plan and ensuring greater links with innovative community planning exercises. Such improvements could ensure a more sustainable environment as well as a more inclusive society and could offer lessons for similar practice in other contexts.     

Early Port-Related Structure Studies

This paper examines three of Australia’s earliest port-related structure studies. Excavations conducted in 1984 and 1994 in vastly different circumstances, with markedly different oceanographic conditions, progressing through quite different substrates, were joined with 1993–1994 overview of all the port structures along the coast of Western Australia. Providing a better appreciation of submerged port-related structure studies as a bona fide part of maritime archaeology, these three studies and have ramifications for future work both in Australia and overseas.     

Dublin's temple bar—a case study of culture‐led regeneration

The Temple Bar project in Dublin has been widely viewed as a model of culture‐led regeneration. However, the outcomes of the project show that many of its original aims, such as the maintenance and enhancement of a diverse range of uses to cater for both the needs of the local population and those of investors, have not been achieved. This would seem to be in part the result of the high priority given to image enhancement at the expense of social objectives.     

Comparison and theoretical fluidity: Three studies in political theory

David Cameron, The Social Thought of Rousseau and Burke: A Comparative Study, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1973, pp. 242, $14.90.

Arthur Stephen McGrade, The Political Thought of William of Ockham: Personal and Institutional Principles, Cambridge University Press, 1974, pp. 269, $18.10.

Hanna Fenichel Pitkin, Wittgenstein and Justice: On the Significance of Ludwig Wittgenstein for Social and Political Thought, University of California Press, 1972, paperback edition, pp. 360, $4.65.