Buzz,Archipelago Economies and the Future of Intermediate and Peripheral Areas in a Spiky World

In a world where large urban agglomerations are increasingly regarded by scholars and policy-makers alike as the engines of economic development, the options at the disposal of intermediate and peripheral areas are dwindling. Doing nothing is, according to the dominating theories, likely to result in a steady decline which may jeopardize their very economic viability. Adopting active measures is thus the way forward. In this paper, we argue that the main solution being proposed—interactive learning through the promotion of local agglomeration (buzz option)—may yield limited results, if at all, as it would stifle the circulation of new knowledge and lead to lock-in. By contrast, promoting interaction outside the comfort zone of geographical, cognitive, social and institutional proximity (pipeline option) is more likely to succeed in generating interactive learning and in facilitating the generation, diffusion and absorption of innovation. We illustrate this point by resorting to the case of firm innovation in Norwegian city regions.     

Maritime Archaeology and Trans-Oceanic Trade: A Case Study of the Oranjemund Shipwreck Cargo, Namibia

Routine sand dredging for alluvial diamonds at Oranjemund on the southern coast of Namibia exposed remnants of a long forgotten Portuguese merchant ship believed to have wrecked in the 1530s. The rescue excavations yielded over 40 tons of cargo consisting of thousands of gold and silver coins, tons of copper and lead ingots, and large quantities of ivory together with food refuse, part of personal possessions and the superstructure of the ship. This paper discusses the cargo from the shipwreck. The varying provenances show that overland inter-and intra-regional networks fed into the maritime trade between Europe and the Indian sub-continent. As such, the wreck is a lens through which we can view what was happening on the seas as well as on land. Finally we consider wider issues raised by this discovery relating to the protection and management of such material wherever it may be found in future.     

The urban paradox of a stranger

Rubén E. Reina. Paraná: Social Boundaries in an Argentine City. Austin: The University of Texas Press, 1974. xxiv + 390 pp. Figures, tables, illustrations, maps, bibliography, and index. $10.00.     

Pluralising Political Forests: Unpacking “the State” by Tracing Virunga's Charcoal Chain

Peering through the lens of illegal charcoal production in the forested areas of Virunga National Park in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, this paper makes a case for disaggregating the notion of “the state” to better capture “the political” in contemporary political forests. It argues that to identify the fluctuating importance of different dimensions of “stateness”, it is crucial to acknowledge the polymorphous socio-spatial relations that produce political forests. Thus, we draw on the notions of territory, place, scale and network (TPSN) to examine how “stateness” in Virunga has transformed under the particularisation, transnationalisation, and regionalisation of authority. This approach allows us to show how these processes do not only stem from neoliberalisation, but are also driven by, inter alia, regional warfare and non-state militarisation. The resulting complexity of the regulatory landscape turns Virunga into a space marked by a plurality of partly overlapping and partly conflicting political forests.     

The Puzzle of Group Ranch Subdivision in Kenya's Maasailand

This article explores the motivations underlying Maasai pastoralists' support for the subdivision and parcellization of their collectively held group ranches, an outcome that is inconsistent with theoretical expectation. Examining four group ranches that formed part of the wave of subdivisions that occurred in the 1980s, it finds that Maasai herders were inclined to support subdivision in order to capture gains in a new property assignment or to reduce distributional disadvantages within the status quo. Importantly, however, subdivision also emerged as a critical defensive strategy against internal and external threats to Maasai land claims. Incorporating this defensive strategy (aimed at securing individual claims) within the individual's calculus for seeking exclusive rights provides insights into why a theoretically unexpected property rights transformation took place.