The contradictory logic of global ecosystem services markets

Commodification and transnational trading of ecosystem services is the most ambitious iteration yet of the strategy of ‘selling nature to save it’. The World Bank and UN agencies contend that global carbon markets can slow climate change while generating resources for development. Consonant with ‘inclusionary’ versions of neoliberal development policy, advocates assert that international payment for ecosystem services (PES) projects, financed by carbon-offset sales and biodiversity banking, can benefit the poor. However, the World Bank also warns that a focus on poverty reduction can undermine efficiency in conservation spending. The experience of ten years of PES illustrates how, in practice, market-efficiency criteria clash directly with poverty-reduction priorities. Nevertheless, the premises of market-based PES are being extrapolated as a model for global REDD programmes financed by carbon-offset trading. This article argues that the contradiction between development and conservation observed in PES is inevitable in projects framed by the asocial logic of neoclassical economics. Application in international conservation policy of the market model, in which profit incentives depend upon differential opportunity costs, will entail a net upward redistribution of wealth from poorer to wealthier classes and from rural regions to distant centres of capital accumulation, mainly in the global North.     

《晋书·地理志》县级封国考论

反映西晋前期政区全貌的《晋书·地理志》中记载了58个县级封国,包括公国、侯国两类。虽然西晋朝廷已设置公、侯、伯、子、男五等爵,但这些封国所对应的爵位,却是位在五等爵之下的一般县公、县侯。各家县公主要是由曹魏宗王降封而来。为县侯者,有功臣、敌国降将、曹魏宗室,还有不少是曹魏时即已受封而入晋后仍保留爵位者。     

Editorial: Culture matters

In this paper, I examine the notion of privilege as it relates to whiteness. The argument that racial privilege is actively constructed in the micro-geographies of everyday life is based on a case study conducted in Buffalo, New York. In this study, I analyze the narrated experiences of white elderly, primarily female, residents of a changing urban neighborhood. To capture the interrelationships between racial privilege and place, I used multi-methods research which included surveys, mental maps, travel diaries, interviews, and participation observation. The stories told are detailed accounts of the ways in which these white elderly residents cope with a slipping away of their white privilege through learning new boundaries of privilege, devising strategies for coping with their changed neighborhood, and reclaiming, in part, their previously held privileges. I propose that whiteness and its attendant privilege is not just about who you are, but where you are.     

Book reviews

Allen C. Guelzo, Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999). Pp.xii + 516. $29.00 (hardback). ISBN 0 8028 3872 3.

David L. Dykstra, The Shifting Balance of Power: American‐British Diplomacy in North America, 1842–1848 (Lanham, Md: University Press of America, 1999). Pp.xxxiv + 247. $39.00 (hardback). ISBN 0 7618 1316 2.

Kathryn Teresa Long, The Revival of 1857–58: Interpreting an American Religious Awakening (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998). Pp.x + 256. $45.00 (hardback). ISBN 0 1951 1293 8.

David Williams, Rich Man's War: Class, Caste, and Confederate Defeat in the Lower Chattahoochee Valley (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1998). Pp.xiv + 288. $34.95 (hardback). ISBN 0 8203 2033.

Eugene D. Genovese, A Consuming Fire: The Fall of the Confederacy in the Mind of the White Christian South (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1998). Pp.xvi 4–180. $24.95 (hardback). ISBN 0 8203 2046 3.

Randall M. Miller, Harry S. Stout, and Charles Reagan Wilson, eds., Religion and the American Civil War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998). Pp.xiii + 422. $55.00 (hardback); $24.95 (paperback). ISBNs 0 1951 2128 7 and 0 1951 2129 5.

Daniel E. Sutherland, ed., Guerrillas, Unionists, and Violence on the Confederate Home Front (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1999). Pp.250. $32.00 (hardback); $20 (paperback). ISBN 1 5572 8549 7; ISBN 1 5572 8550 0.     

Review articles

Colette is not generally included in recent narratives of twentieth-century French neoclassicism. However, her contemporaries of various political and aesthetic persuasions considered Colette to be a classique of the first order. This article explores classification as classique by critics sympathetic to Charles Maurras and the aesthetics of the Action française as well as left-leaning critics associated with André Gide and the group surrounding the Nouvelle Revue française. The article shows that it is Colette's strong association with a particular type of femininity that allows her to be thought of as classique by critics of such different political and aesthetic commitments. The article also examines examples of resistance to Colette's categorisation as classique, and attempts to assert the modernity of her work, coining the term classique moderne as a way of bringing together diverse attempts to explain the harmony between classicism and modernity in Colette's work. The article suggests that Colette's incorporation in the canon of the classique is part of a larger solidifying of the role of femininity in French identity at that moment.     

Election Administration Reform and State Choice: Voter Identification Requirements and HAVA

This research examines factors that have influenced state choices about methods of voter identification practices in the current environment of election administration reform. State voter identification practices have been an active area of state policy action since 2000. Rival explanations for state adoption of voter identification requirements are analyzed for three national election cycles following the 2000 presidential election. State voter identification practices are classified according to levels of relative stringency and in terms of variation from federal requirements for voter identification under the Help America Vote Act of 2002. State decisions to adopt more stringent forms of voter identification are significantly influenced by intrastate factors including Republican Party control of state government, traditionalist state political culture, and greater levels of racial/ethnic diversity. Federal review of election practices under the Voting Rights Act is positively associated with more moderate approaches to voter identification but is not significant over this time period.     

Charcoal reflectance measurements: implications for structural characterization and assessment of diagenetic alteration

Charcoal is a valuable source of archaeological and palaeoenvironmental proxy data. However growing evidence suggests that production conditions can strongly influence post-depositional alteration of charcoal. Consequently, both reconstruction of production temperature and understanding of the potential for diagenetic alteration are of great interest. Here, we use mean random reflectance (Ro_mean) in conjunction with other chemical characterization methods to address these questions. Ro_mean was obtained for a suite of modern analogue charcoal, produced under controlled conditions, and for a series of natural charcoal samples, obtained from archaeological and palaeoenvironmental deposits. Ro_mean proves to be a robust measure to assess formation temperature for samples produced at 400 °C and above, even after exposure to highly oxidizing conditions. Ro_mean is also useful for samples formed between 300 °C and 400 °C. However, if an assemblage of charcoals has been exposed to oxidizing conditions, lower temperature charcoals may be preferentially lost. It is apparent that charcoal produced at lower temperatures is more highly susceptible to chemical oxidation, and that there is a continuum in charcoal degradation potential, dependant upon fuel material and production conditions.     

Chihr de l’encens (Yémen)

Frankincense burners found in al‐Shihr’s excavations in Yemen, a frankincense harbour during the Islamic period, represent a rare corpus of this type, which is an indication of both specific use and goods from South Arabia. Although associated with the pre‐Islamic South Arabian kingdoms, the frankincense burner evolved throughout the Islamic period. This is proved by the long chronological sequence of the al‐Shihr site (780–1996). Texts quoting the presence of frankincense, its use and its trade in al‐Shihr are cited in this article to support the reputation of this harbour‐town, which is part of the maritime trade networks of medieval Islam. The aim of this article is to create a renewal of interest in future archaeological research about this object, which is so often neglected in spite of its importance as a testimony of the customs and exchanges that are deeply rooted in Arabian civilisation.     

‘Any place to raise children is a good place’: children,housing and neighbourhoods in inner Newcastle,Australia

Neighbourhoods are important spaces of interaction for children. This paper explores the perceptions of residents from seven suburbs in the inner area of Newcastle, Australia concerning what makes a good neighbourhood for children. Key factors identified by residents include the types of dwellings found in the neighbourhood (with detached houses being seen as preferable for children) and the quality of neighbourhood resources. Another important feature was social interactions within the neighbourhood, including interactions between children and adults and interactions between groups of children. The paper examines how different features of neighbourhoods interact to create adult perceptions about whether a neighbourhood is appropriate for children. The paper also points to the ways that children are seen to actively produce the neighbourhood in which they live.