Regional Financial Arrangements in the Global Financial Safety Net: The Arab Monetary Fund and the Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development

The so‐called global financial safety net provides backstop insurance during financial crises. The three elements of the global safety net — the IMF, regional financial arrangements (RFAs) and bilateral swap agreements — underwent substantial changes after the global financial crisis. How have these changes influenced their use? What role do RFAs have in the safety net? This contribution addresses these questions by examining the timeliness, volume and policy conditionality of liquidity provision of each of the three elements, using a data set of 50 RFA member countries from the period 1976–2015. The article presents case studies of the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) and the Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development (EFSD) to create a deeper institutional understanding of the governance mechanisms of regional funds. The authors find that today's global financial safety net produces inequalities in emergency liquidity provision. In terms of volume, RFAs improve the safety net only for small member countries — about one‐third of the countries in the sample can access sufficient liquidity regionally. The experiences of AMF and EFSD demonstrate that intra‐regional asymmetries of RFAs play a contradictory role: while the participation of large economies leverages liquidity provision, it simultaneously creates difficulties for the governance of the regional body.     

Das Reisen ist des Chemikers Lust - auf den Spuren Robert Bunsens. Zu Robert Wilhelm Bunsens 100. Todestag

The article deals with an aspect of the famous German chemist Robert Bunsen which has not been of much notice so far: his journeys. During his stay in Heidelberg (from 1852 on) Bunsen journeyed up to four months a year. Up to the age of seventy-eight, he travelled twice almost every year either in spring or autumn when there were no lectures at the university. He made his journeys for reasons of pleasure and in need of rest from teaching and research. In the 19th century such frequency of travelling was quite unusual even for a bachelor like Bunsen. Beeing an enthusiastic wayfarer Bunsen also travelled far away often, so for example to Italy twelve times (even to Sicily), four times to Scotland and England, and twice to Mallorca. - Bunsen's first nine week journey to Italy in 1843 disappointed him as to its scientific outcome. This journey was a turning-point since he had travelled before for scientific purposes only, beginning with the postdoctoral trip which Bunsen took 1831/32 (sponsored by his sovereign, the king of Hannover) to Berlin, Paris and Vienna for education and information matters. The article sets this journey as well as subsequent travels focusing on science (information, professional communication, experimental team-work) in the framework of continuing academic training. In the end of the 18th and in the 19th century such journeys for further academic education were mainly done at public expense by chemists and geologists as well as by mining and steel scientists to prepare and qualify themselves as either university professors or administrators for mining metallurgical industry. All these various forms of travelling (postdoctoral educational travels at public expense, scientific journeys, meetings for experimental team-work, expeditions, and recreational trips) served the communication within the scientific community. No one who wanted to belong to this community was able to escape such form of communication.     

Planners' Role: Torn between Dialogical Ideals and Neo-liberal Realities

Planners are inclined to be in favour of public involvement and open processes and opposed to manipulation and lenient control of developers. The hypothesis here is that the attitudes of the typical Nordic planner, in particular, are much closer to communicative planning theory than to New Public Management. The planner role is currently under cross pressure from conflicting values and expectations held by educators and part of the professional community influenced by communicative planning theory on the one hand, and politicians and administrators promoting New Public Management on the other hand. However, patches of common ground are also identified and analysed, in particular the concern for user influence, service quality, and client satisfaction.     

The Stalk that Supports the Flower: Orang Rimba Kinship,Marriage and Gender in Jambi Sumatra

This article examines Orang Rimba kinship, marriage and gender relations in the Bukit Duabelas region of Jambi, Sumatra. Orang Rimba social organization, its terms and concepts, primary kinship relations, use of botanic metaphor and key structural contrasts demonstrate their ties to Malay and Austronesian‐speaking peoples throughout the region. The manner in which these concepts are applied is very different, and is arranged in a way to fit their unique way of life in the forests. Some of the broader differences relate to their mobile economy, small and dispersed camps, and asymmetrical relations of affinity, which take place in the context of egalitarian social relations. This results in a set of social relationships not unlike many of the bride service societies throughout the world. Orang Rimba women have great rights over forest resources, yet are restrained in their interactions with men and outsiders by rigid gender relations.