Punctuated Equilibria in the Private Sector and the Stability of Market Systems

The article examines longitudinal trends in expenditures by over 1,200 private firms, finding evidence of punctuated equilibrium—a pattern of change widely interpreted as evidence of stick‐slip dynamics in decision‐making processes. Levels of punctuation in the private sector closely resemble those observed in studies on public budgeting, suggesting that the private sector is not on average any less resistant to change than government. Both private‐ and public‐sector decision making is a function of deliberative processes, which the article compares to market systems. Deliberative decision making takes place when a group comes to a consensus about the allocation of resources. Market processes aggregate the actions of many independent decision makers to arrive at an outcome, such as the value of a commodity. The article considers the relative informational efficiency of these two processes and concludes that market systems should be more adaptive to incoming information. Three case studies provide natural experiments to investigate the stability of outputs during periods of deliberative and market control. A key finding is that when outputs are determined by market systems it greatly reduces the magnitude of punctuation.     

Aerostatic spacing: on things becoming lighter than air

The development of practical aerostatic or lighter than air balloon flight in 1783 marked the emergence of a new way of being and becoming mobile, one that also involved an important technical and experiential transformation in earth–atmosphere relations. This paper narrates an account of the distinctive kinds of spaces of which aerostatic flight is generative. At the centre of this account is the claim that the affective materiality of aerostatic flight is simultaneously processual and possessing of what political theorist Jane Bennett calls 'thing-power'. In developing this claim, the paper draws from a range of historical and contemporary accounts of aerostatic flight in order to elaborate upon three aspects of the spaces of things becoming aerostatic: the distinctive kinds of sensing of which aerostatic flight is generative; the differential qualities of affectivity in which the movement and materiality of aerostatic things participates; and the kinds of vertiginous events in which the felt movement – actual or anticipated – of aerostatic things is implicated. The paper concludes by speculating upon how attending to the distinctive and sometimes disquieting materiality of aerostatic things might contribute to geographical engagements with the spaces of air and atmosphere.     

Julfar and the urbanisation of Southeast Arabia

The fourteenth-sixteenth-century town of Julfar (al-Mataf) in Ras al-Khaimah (UAE) is one of the most fully investigated archaeological sites in the Gulf, having been the subject of seven different excavation projects. Evidence from the published reports, when brought together, provides a detailed and coherent picture of the development of the site from a small fishing community in the mid-fourteenth century to a fully urbanised settlement by the mid-fifteenth century, and then attests to its eventual decline and abandonment by the late sixteenth century.
Julfar was the first example of true urbanism in this part of Arabia, and therefore marks a significant historical turning point. Its development is believed to have been linked to the expanding mercantile economy of Hormuz, but it occurred at the same time as a period of spectacular rural growth in its own immediate hinterland, evidence for which has been produced by archaeological field survey. Together these phenomena suggest the development of a local market economy, perhaps for the first time, which would have had significant implications for the social and economic structure of the area.     

The Dark Side of Transformation: Latent Risks in Contemporary Sustainability Discourse

The notion of transformation is gaining traction in contemporary sustainability debates. New ways of theorising and supporting transformations are emerging and, so the argument goes, opening exciting spaces to (re)imagine and (re)structure radically different futures. Yet, questions remain about how the term is being translated from an academic concept into an assemblage of normative policies and practices, and how this process might shape social, political, and environmental change. Motivated by these questions, we identify five latent risks associated with discourse that frames transformation as apolitical and/or inevitable. We refer to these risks as the dark side of transformation. While we cannot predict the future of radical transformations towards sustainability, we suggest that scientists, policymakers, and practitioners need to consider such change in more inherently plural and political ways.     

Reviews

The Bulkies: Police and Crime in Belfast, 1800–1865 Brian Griffin, 1997 Dublin, Irish Academic Press pp. xi + 166, ISBN 0.7165.2670.0, £29.50 (hb)

The Hungry Stream: Essays on Emigration and Famine E. Margaret Crawford (ed.), 1997 Belfast, Institute of Irish Studies, Queen's University pp.215, ISBN 1.85589.677.1, £25 (hb); ISBN 0.85389.674.7, £9.50 (pb)

The Feminization of Famine Margaret Kelleher, 1997 Cork University Press pp.258, ISBN 1.85918.077.9, £40.00 (hb); ISBN 1.85918.078.7, £16.95 (pb)

The Two Irelands, 1912–1939 David Fitzpatrick, 1998 Oxford, Oxford University Press pp. xviii + 301, ISBN 0.19.289240.1, £8.99 (pb)

The I.R.A. and its Enemies: Violence and Community in Cork, 1916–23 Peter Hart, 1998 Oxford, Oxford University Press pp. xvi + 350, ISBN 0.19.820537.6, £40.00 (hb)

The Politics of Illusion: a Political History of the IRA Henry Patterson, 1997 London, Serif pp.320, ISBN 1.897959.31.1, £14.99 (pb)

Peace or War? Understanding the Peace Process in Northern Ireland Chris GILligan & Jon Tonge (eds), 1997 Aldershot, Ashgate Publishing pp. 167, ISBN 1.85972.519.8, £35.00 (hb)

The Irish RMs: The Resident Magistrates in the British Administration of Ireland Penny Bonsall, 1997 Dublin, Four Courts Press pp.224, ISBN 1.85182.331.X, £30.00 (hb)

The Geopolitics of Anglo‐Irish Relations in the Twentieth Century G. R.Sloan, 1997 London, Leicester University Press pp.320, ISBN 0.718.51356.8, £45.00 (hb)

Hope Deferred: Experiences of an Irish Unionist Basil Mcivor, 1998 Dundonald, Blackstaff Press pp. 163, ISBN 0.85640.620.1, £12.99 (pb)

Who Are ‘The People'? Unionism, Protestantism and Loyalism in Northern Ireland Peter Shirlow & Mark Mcgovern (eds), 1997 London, Pluto Press pp. 192, ISBN 0.7453.1213.6, £35.00 (hb); ISBN 0.7453.1208.X, £13.99 (pb)

Crisis and Decline: the Fate of the Southern Unionists R. B. Mcdowell, 1997 Dublin, Lilliput Press pp. x + 227, ISBN 1.8746.7592.9, £16.99 (hb)

Crime in Ireland 1945–95: Here be Dragons John Brewer, Bill Lockhart & Paula Rodgers, 1997 Oxford, Clarendon Press pp. 268, ISBN C.19.826570.0, £40.00 (hb)

Explorations in Law and History W. N. Osborough (ed.), 1995 Dublin, Irish Academic Press pp. 193, ISBN 0.7165.2451.0, £24.95 (hb)

Decadence and Danger: Writing, History and the fin de siècle Tracey Hill (ed.), 1997 Bath, Sulis Press pp.228, ISBN 0.9526.856.1.2, £35.00 (hb); ISBN 0.9526.856.2.0, £13.95 (pb)

Deeds Not Words: The Life and Work of Muriel Gahan Geraldine Mitchell, 1997 Dublin, Town House pp.224, ISBN 1.860589.046.2, £9.99 (pb)

In Search of Ireland: A Cultural Geography Brian Graham (ed.), 1997 London, Routledge pp. xiv + 240, ISBN 0.415.15007.8, £47.50 (hb); ISBN 0.415.15008.6, £15.99 (pb)

Space and Place: The Geographies of Literature Glenda Norquay & Gerry Smyth (eds), 1997 Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores University Press pp.414, ISBN 0.9527.97802, £15.00 (pb)

Women Divided: Gender, Religion and Politics in Northern Ireland Rosemary Sales, 1997 London, Routledge pp.256, ISBN 0.415.13766.7, £14.99 (pb)

Gender and Sexuality in Modern Ireland Anthony Bradley & Marianna Gialanella Vauuus (eds), 1997 Amherst, University of Massachusetts pp.336, ISBN 1.55849.130.9, US$50.00 (hb); ISBN 1.55849.131.7, US$16.95 (pb)

Irish Women in England: An Annotated Bibliography Clare Barrington, 1997 Dublin, Women's Education, Research and Resource Centre, University College Dublin pp.72, ISBN 1.898473.80.3, £5.00 (pb)

Edmund Spenser's Irish Experience: Wilde Fruit and Salvage Soyl Andrew Hadfield, 1997 Oxford, Clarendon Press pp.240, ISBN 0.10.818345.3, £35.00 (hb)

Salvaging Spenser: Colonialism, Culture and Identity Willy Maley, 1997 Basingstoke, Macmillan pp.260, ISBN 0.3336.2942.6, £40.00 (hb); ISBN 0.3336.2943.4, £12.99 (pb)

Between Nations: Shakespeare, Spenser, Marvell, and the Question of Britain David J. Baker, 1997 Stanford, Stanford University Press, and Cambridge, Cambridge University Press pp.221, ISBN 0.8047.2997.2, US839.50, £30.00 (hb)

Locating Swift: Essays from Dublin on the 250th Anniversary of the Death of Jonathan Swift 1667–1745 Aileen Douglas, Patrick Kelly & Ian Campbell Ross (eds), 1998 Dublin, Four Courts Press pp.208, ISBN 1.85182.317.4, £35.00, US$45.00 (hb)

Maria Edgeworth's Irish Writing: Language, History, Politics Brian Hollingworth, 1997 Basingstoke, Macmillan pp.256, ISBN 0.333.681.66.5, £40.00 (hb)

Verse in English from Eighteenth‐Century Ireland Andrew Carpenter, 1998 Cork, Cork University Press pp.640, ISBN 1.85912.103.1, £40.00, US$60.00 (hb); ISBN 1.85912.104.X, £15.95, US829.95 (pb)

Mrs S. C. Hall: A Literary Biography Maureen Keane, 1997 Gerrards Cross, Colin Smythe pp. 260, ISBN 0.86140.394.0, £33.00 (hb)

Yeats's Political Identities: Selected Essays Jonathan Allison (ed.), 1996 Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press pp.352, ISBN 0.472.10445.4, US849.50 (hb)

Yeats and the Drama of Sacred Space Nicholas Meihuizen, 1998 Amsterdam, Costerus New Series 116, Rodopi pp. 190, ISBN 90.420.0388.X, £19.50, US$34.00 (pb)

High and Low Moderns: Literature and Culture, 1889–1939 Maria Dibattista & Lucy Mcdiarmid (eds), 1996 New York and Oxford, Oxford University Press pp.259, ISBN 0.19.508266.4, £37.50 (hb)

Louis MacNeice and his Influence Kathleen Devine & Alan J. Peacock (eds), 1998 Gerrards Cross, Colin Smythe pp. 184, ISBN 0.86140.391.6, £27.50 (hb)

Samuel Beckett and Music Mary Bryden (ed.), 1998 Oxford, Clarendon Press pp.267, ISBN 0.19.818427.1, £40.00 (hb)

Talking of Joyce Umberto Eco & Liberato Santoro‐Brienza, 1998 Dublin, University College Dublin Press pp.86, ISBN 1.900621.13.4, £5.95 (pb)

The Boy in the Moon Kate O'riordan, 1997 London, Flamingo pp. 278, ISBN 0.00.225555.3, £12.99 (hb)

A Glassful of Letters Evelyn Conlon, 1998 Belfast, Blackstaff pp. 208, ISBN 0.85640.618.X, £7.99 (pb)

The Parchment Boat Moya Cannon, 1997 Oldcastle, The Gallery Press pp.45, ISBN 1.85235.202.7, £11.95 (hb); ISBN 1.85235.201.9, £5.95 (pb)

Thirst David Wheatley, 1997 Oldcastle, The Gallery Press pp.77, ISBN 1.85235.208.6, £12.95 (hb); ISBN 1.85235.207.8, £6.95 (pb)

Selected Poems Medbh Mcguckian, 1997 Oldcastle, The Gallery Press pp.94, ISBN 1.85235.204.3, £13.95 (hb); ISBN 1.85235.203.5, £7.95 (pb)

The Yellow Book Derek Mahon, 1997 Oldcastle, The Gallery Press pp.57, ISBN 1.85253.206.X, £12.95 (hb); ISBN 1.85253.205.1, £6.95 (pb)     

The Death of Beauty: Goya's Etchings and Black Paintings through the Eyes of André Malraux

Modern critics often regard Goya's etchings and black paintings as satirical observations on the social and political conditions of the time. In a study of Goya first published in 1950, which seldom receives the attention it merits, the French author and art theorist André Malraux contends that these works have a significance of a much deeper kind. The etchings and black paintings, Malraux argues, represent a fundamental challenge to the European artistic tradition that began with the Renaissance, an essentially humanist tradition founded on the pursuit of a transcendent world of nobility, harmony and beauty—an ideal world outside of which, as Malraux writes, ‘man did not fully merit the name man’. Following the illness that left him deaf for life—an encounter with ‘the irremediable’, to borrow Malraux's term—Goya developed an art of a fundamentally different kind—an art, Malraux writes, ruled by ‘the unity of the prison house’, which replaced transcendence with a pervasive ‘feeling of dependence’ and from which all trace of humanism has been erased. Foreshadowing modern art's abandonment of the Renaissance ideal, and created semi-clandestinely, the etchings and black paintings are an early announcement of the death of beauty in Western art.