Explaining age differences in positive attitudes towards national commemorations: the role of what people commemorate

Commemorations of shared national history are important to the process of nation‐building. Support for such national commemorations is not, however, evenly distributed in societies. Because this could endanger the possible integrative function of commemorative ceremonies, it is important to understand the sources of structural differences in support. In this article, age differences in support for national commemorations in the Netherlands are examined. It is argued that because age cohorts grow up with different ideas on what should be commemorated they also differ in value attached to such commemorations. Data from the National Freedom Enquiry 2012 show that older persons more often associate national commemorations with the Second World War than younger persons do, and that this is the reason why they are more supportive of the annual celebration of Liberation Day. In the concluding section, it is argued that more (quantitative) studies should be conducted in order to truly understand the mechanisms behind support of national commemorations as this may help us to better comprehend the processes construing feelings of national belonging.     

Fur-bearing species and Scottish islands

Analysis of a database comprising archaeological records of fur-bearing species in Scotland has highlighted the presence of foxes, badgers and other mustelids in areas outside their modern-day geographic range. Of particular interest is the apparent presence of foxes on Orkney for a number of centuries, from perhaps the last few centuries BC to the mid to late first millennium AD, pine marten on Orkney in the Neolithic, and badgers on the Outer Hebrides in the Early Bronze Age and 6–7th centuries AD. While zooarchaeological analysis of the data suggests the evidence from the Outer Hebrides is indicative of imported products of fur-bearing species, such as skins or ‘trophies’, the evidence from Orkney suggests populations of fur-bearing species may have been purposefully introduced by humans. This raises interesting questions regarding human perception and use of the different species in prehistoric North Atlantic Scotland.     

A Strategic Approach to Multistakeholder Negotiations

Environment and development practitioners increasingly are interested in identifying methods, institutional arrangements and policy environments that promote negotiations among natural resource stakeholders leading to collective action and, it is hoped, sustainable resource management. Yet the implications of negotiations for disadvantaged groups of people are seldom critically examined. We draw attention to such implications by examining different theoretical foundations for multistakeholder negotiations and linking these to practical problems for disadvantaged groups. We argue that negotiations based on an unhealthy combination of communicative rationality and liberal pluralism, which underplays or seeks to neutralize differences among stakeholders, poses considerable risks for disadvantaged groups. We suggest that negotiations influenced by radical pluralist and feminist post‐structuralist thought, which emphasize strategic behaviour and selective alliance‐building, promise better outcomes for disadvantaged groups in most cases, particularly on the scale and in the historical contexts in which negotiations over forest management usually take place.     

Book reviews

A. K. Ogloblin. Madurskiy yazyk i lingvisticheskaya tipologiya. 200 pp. Leningrad: Izdatel'stvo Leningradskogo Universiteta, 1986.

Rahmah Bujang. Boria: a form of Malay theatre. xv, 165 pp. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, [1987]. (Local History and Memoirs.)

J. van Baal and others. West Irian: a bibliography. [By] J. van Baal, K. W. Galis, and R. M. Koentjaraningrat. xiv, 307 pp. Dordrecht; Cinnaminson: Foris Publications, 1984. (Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal‐, Land‐ en Volkenkunde. Bibliographical series, 15.)     

How street-level dilemmas and politics shape divergence: The accountability regimes framework

Hierarchical accountability often proves insufficient to control street-level implementation, where complex, informal accountability relations prevail and tasks must be prioritized. However, scholars lack a theoretical model of how accountability relations affect implementation behaviors that are inconsistent with policy. By extending the Accountability Regimes Framework (ARF), this paper explains how multiple competing subjective street-level accountabilities translate into policy divergence. The anti-terrorism “Prevent Duty” policy in the United Kingdom requires university lecturers to report any student they suspect may be undergoing a process of radicalization. We ask: what perceived street-level accountabilities and dilemmas does this politically contested policy imply for lecturers, and how do they affect divergence? An online survey of British lecturers (N = 809), combined with 35 qualitative follow-up interviews, reveals that accountability dilemmas trigger policy divergence. The ARF models how street-level bureaucrats become informal policymakers in the political system when rules clash with their roles as professionals, citizen-agents, or “political animals.”     

Investigation of Iron Age north-eastern Scottish glass beads using element analysis with LA-ICP-MS

Class 13 and 14 Iron Age Scottish glass beads are a group of highly decorated beads of British origin or design, dating indicatively to the 1st and 2nd century AD and typically found in Aberdeenshire and Moray district (Guido, 1978, 85–9). Their distinctive stylistic characteristics and geographical segregation renders them ideal for the investigation of whether the glasses employed in their manufacture were imported rather than produced locally, and for the assessment of the technology used in the production of the deep colours. Studies performed in the 1980s on different specimens pertaining to the same Classes (Henderson, 1982) showed compositional characteristics differing from Iron Age southern British beads, suggesting a different source of glass for their manufacture. Here, a set of 19 beads which was never investigated before was analysed for 32 major, minor and trace elements using Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). The sample set shows good homogeneity in major and minor element composition, indicating the use of imported natron glass, with standardized composition typical of Roman glass of the period, also reflected in the recipes used for colouration. Evidence for the use of cullet and waste glass was found, which, along with the particularity of the design, suggests a local origin of the beads and possible production by native glassworkers.     

The Paradox of a Capitalist Utopia: Visionary Ideals and Lived Experience in the Pullman Community 1880–1900

The model company town of Pullman was a social experiment that took utopian principles of intentional community and directed them towards a perfection of the capitalist system in America. This paternalistic effort on the part of industrialist George Pullman is well known as a social experiment that failed on a grand scale, as the model town became the site of a major labor action in 1894. This study uses archaeology and history to suggest that the town of Pullman was not simply an idealized community that served as a backdrop to a major labor action, but instead that the town actually created circumstances that elevated worker discontent that perhaps made workers more prone to take action against the company.     

Community perceptions to place attachment and tourism development in Finnish Lapland

Tourism in the Arctic is increasing rapidly and affecting local communities through land development pressures. In addition to providing economic opportunities, this development trend is affecting more intangible areas of life such as place attachment. The aim of this paper is to examine place attachment in tourism-dependent communities in the Arctic through place dependence and place identity. This is done through mapping sites with personal meanings and locally valued tourist sites in two communities in Finnish Lapland. The attachment is expressed in two different ways: currently, the economic activities are manifested almost exclusively through tourism development in Kilpisjärvi and Saariselkä, of which the most important sites are located in the natural landscape. As a result, the communities’ dependency on the natural surroundings is evident. The attachment also occurs through non-economic activities and is present through consumption-related actions, (e.g. fishing) as well as through less tangible issues, such as connecting with nature. The economic and consumption-related activities link with place dependence, whereas the more intangible factors with place identity. Mapping and calendar exercises helped to identify where the intensities of place attachment are located, and how they vary in space and time. Whilst considering place attachment and future tourism development, this paper also draws attention to changes in the local environment as a result of human activity, which may be amplified by climate change. When considering future tourism (or any) development, place attachment should carry a larger role in community and development planning.     

Integrating human dimensions of Arctic palaeoenvironmental science: SEAD – the strategic environmental archaeology database

Environmental change has a human dimension, and has had so for at least the last 10 000 years. The prehistoric impact of people on the Arctic landscape has occasionally left visible traces, such as house and field structures. More often than not, however, the only evidence available is at the microscopic or geochemical level, such as fossil insect and seed assemblages or changes in the physical and chemical properties of soils and sediments. These records are the subject of SEAD, a multidisciplinary database and software project currently underway at Umeå University, Sweden, which aims to create an online database and set of tools for investigating these traces, as part of an international research infrastructure for palaeoecology and environmental archaeology.