Taking risks in regions: the geographical anatomy of Europe's emerging venture capital market

Over the past 25 years, the USA has pioneered a new technologicalrevolution, based on large numbers of new small enterprises,financed by a dynamic venture (risk) capital market. The EuropeanUnion, meanwhile, has lagged behind in this sector of economicactivity, and compared to the US innovative small and mediumenterprises appear to find it more difficult to get startedand grow. At a time when regional and local banking systems– traditionally major sources of capital for small andmedium sized enterprises across Europe – are undergoingintense reorganisation and restructuring, the European Commissionconsiders the development of a substantial risk capital marketto be a key condition for closing the ‘enterprise gap’with the US. While the venture capital industry is much lessdeveloped in Europe than it is in the US, nevertheless it hasrecently experienced a marked increase in activity. But whereasthe European Commission argues that venture capital activityneeds to be much more regionally clustered if it is to emulatethe US experience, the OECD and some EU member states have arguedfor a more even regional distribution. The aim of the paperis to chart the growth and geographical anatomy of the emergingEuropean venture capital market, and to examine its spatialdevelopment and regional implications in the context of thesesomewhat opposing views.     

Moral economies of food and geographies of responsibility

This paper uses the concept of 'moral economy' to challenge the conventional view that defines morality and the market as oppositional terms. Drawing on evidence from life history interviews with key actors in the British food industry, the paper outlines how moral and ethical questions are articulated through notions of space and time. Using case study material from the chicken and sugar industries, the paper examines the way that ethical and moral issues are expressed through the dimensions of time (via notions of remembering and forgetting) and space (via notions of connecting and disconnecting) and via notions of visibility and invisibility. The paper concludes by examining how our understanding of the moral economies of food can be advanced through the adoption of a relational view of geographical scale and temporal connection, contrasting the attribution of individual blame with a politics of collective responsibility.     

Book reviews

C. Skinner (ed. and tr.) Ahmad Rijaluddin's Hikayat perinteh negeri Benggala. vi, 198 pp. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1982. (Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal‐, Land‐ en Volkenkunde. Bibliotheca Indonesica, 22.)

J. A. de Moor (camp.). Indisch Militair Tijdschrift (1870–1942) a selective and annotated bibliography. [i], xiv, 236 pp. The Hague: Sectie Militaire Geschiedenis van de Landmachtstaf; Leiden: Centre for the History of European Expansion, 1983. (Bijdragen van de Sectie Militaire Geschiedenis No. 15; Intercontinenta, No. 4). Guilders 24.

A. Teeuw and S. O. Robson (ed. and tr.). Kuñjarakarna dharmakathana, Liberation through the law of the Buddha: an Old Javanese poem by Mpu Dusun. With a contribution on the reliefs of Candi Jago by A. J. Bernet Kempers. ix, 230 pp., 24 plates. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1981. (Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal‐, Land‐ en Volkenkunde. Bibliotheca Indonesica, 21.) Guilders 90.

W. van der Molen. Javaanse tekstkritiek: een overzicht en een nieuwe benadering geillustreerd aan de Kunjarakarna. ix, 316 pp. Dordrecht: Foris Publications, 1983. (Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal‐, Land‐ en Volkenkunde, 102.) Guilders 30.

Jan B. Avé and others. West Kalimantan: a bibliography. By Jan B. Avé, Victor T. King, and Joke G. W. de Wit. x, 260 pp. Dordrecht: Foris Publications, 1983. (Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal‐, Land‐ en Volken‐kunde. Bibliographical Series, 13.) Guilders 30.