An Archaeological Review of Western New Guinea

Western New Guinea constitutes a frontier zone physically, politically, culturally and conceptually between Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Despite this pivotal position, archaeological information for the region is scarce due to limited investigations, limited publication and the multilingual nature of publications. Consequently, little archaeological information about western New Guinea has percolated into the mainstream literature. This paper aims to fill this gap and provides a detailed review of archaeological research, including rock art, published in Dutch, English, French, German and Indonesian. The resultant findings are discussed in terms of continuities and discontinuities with Papua New Guinea and Island Southeast Asia.     

‘A strong and prosperous condition’ — the geography of state building and social reform in Peter the Great's Russia

The point is often made that the rise of the modern state in Europe provided models which have been influential, if not actually copied, across much of the rest of the world. In Russia during the reign of Peter the Great (1682–1725), not only was the tsar aware of the European experience of state building, but consciously strove to base many of his political and social reforms on European models. Peter aimed at sweeping reform of the Russian state and society in the attempt to bring them into the modern world. The paper argues that the reforms were necessarily geographical, involving an attempt radically to reconstruct the country's economic and social geography. The focus is upon the spatial implications of reform, including the founding and development of the city of St. Petersburg as an experiment in social reconstruction. In the event, Peter's success was only partial, and the end product quite different from the models which had influenced his reforms. It is argued that this relative failure derived not only from the widespread resistance to reform but also from geographical, social and cultural circumstances peculiar to Russia. Greater scholarly sensitivity to the social and cultural contexts in which state building occurs might stimulate more cross-cultural and comparative perspectives and enrich this important area of social theory.     

Entrepreneurial Urbanism After the Crisis: Ireland's “Bad Bank” and the Redevelopment of Dublin's Docklands

The development of Dublin's Docklands was paradigmatic of the speculative storm that overwhelmed the Irish economy between the late 1990s and the crisis of 2008. It also served as a textbook case of entrepreneurial urbanism, with the development agency driving private‐led development on a former industrial and waterfront site. Following the crash, however, the key actors have been decimated: the development agency itself, the developers and the banks. This article traces the re‐emergence of Docklands development in order to analyse post‐crisis urban development. I argue that the latest phase of development reproduces key aspects of entrepreneurial urbanism, but also includes novel aspects. In particular, the National Asset Management Agency, a “bad bank” set up to rescue the financial sector, emerges as a major force. The article contributes to debates on urban development after the crash, and the specific relationship between post‐crisis entrepreneurial urbanism and financialization.