Increasing Societal Discomfort About a Dominant Restrictive Planning Discourse on Open Space in Flanders,Belgium

The specific spatial context in the densely urbanized northern part of Belgium, Flanders, offers a sort of laboratory conditions to study, design and plan fragments of open space in an urbanizing context. A chronological analysis of documents in three periods relevant to Flemish spatial planning policy allows us to conclude that one single planning discourse has reigned spatial planning in Flanders already since the design of the first zoning plans 45 years ago. This planning discourse considers city and countryside as two separate and separated entities. Today, however, the validity of this dominant discourse is increasingly under pressure. An obvious societal need appears to be growing to turn around the perception of a possible contradiction between city and countryside. In a densely urbanized spatial context, alternative planning discourses should be based on the idea of open spaces that offer complementary services within a partnership between city and countryside.     

Die ankunft der Anāhita (Yt 5,7–13)

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Production centers of cooking pots in Iron Age Judah

This paper will present and discuss a multifaceted research project dealing with the production of cooking pots during the Iron Age II (ca. 1,000–586 BCE) Judah (modern Israel). In particular the new compositional analysis of 541 cooking vessels from 11 sites in Iron Age Judah will be presented. The study employs petrographic and chemical (NAA) analysis. The results of this ongoing research have already produced interesting information about production centers and movements of cooking pots in Iron Age II Judah. Apparently, the vast majority of the cooking pots sampled were made of a similar type of clay, related to terra rossa soil. This is true also for sites in the northern Negev and Judean Desert, where the type of soil was not available in the region of the sites. Furthermore, many of the cooking pots distributed around Judah were made in Jerusalem according to a well-located chemical profile (JleB). Other groups may represent Judean Shephelah production centers as the Lachish area as well as production centers in southern Israel or ancient Edom. The implications of the importation patterns of cooking pots by peripheral Judean sites will be discussed.     

Publications Received [52]

Publications Received

Publications Received [52]     

Institutional and Policy Responses to Uncertainty in Environmental Policy: A Comparison of Dutch and U.S. Styles

Uncertainties regarding problem definition and policy response are an endemic pan of environmental decisionmaking. Some standard responses to uncertainty in decisionmaking are analyzed and then used to suggest the importance of learning-oriented policy processes in open, flexible, and adaptive institutional environments. The institutional and policy responses to both types of uncertainties are explored in two different institutional settings: the consensus-oriented setting of the Netherlands and the more adversarial and pluralistic context of the United States. The examination displays tensions accompanying learning-oriented environmental policymaking and the complex impact of institutional environments. Conclusions sketch implications for how to accommodate learning-oriented environmental policy processes.