The path-dependent evolution of the entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) – dynamics and region-specific assets of the case of Vienna (Austria)

The paper sheds light on the path-dependent development of the Viennese entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE). By taking into account temporal dynamics from the 1990s onwards as well as region-specificities we are able to demonstrate the evolution of the EE is not a linear process, but rather the various pillars of the EE may develop in distinct directions and find themselves in discrete development stages. Our in-depth analysis supports the understanding of how various pillars of the EE – especially the regulatory and finance/funding pillar – interrelate. Furthermore, the detected cause–effect interlinkages are not balanced, but are rather shaped by power-constellations and temporal imprinting as well as other regional specificities, which influence the overall success of the EE.     

New Light on the Medieval Gough Map of Britain

Remarkably little is known about the earliest surviving separate-sheet medieval map of Britain that takes its name from its former owner, Richard Gough (1735–1809), and that has been variously dated to between 1300 and 1400, and later. It presents a sophisticated cartographical image at a time when detailed maps of individual regions were almost unknown in Europe, yet nothing is agreed about its possible origins, context (ecclesiastical or secular), or why and how it was compiled. In the belief that historical interpretation has to stem from an intimate knowledge of the map as artefact—the state of the parchment, nature of the inks, palaeography—as well as image, an informal study group of historians and scientists (the Gough Map Panel) was convened in 2012 to examine the map through high resolution digital reproduction, hyperspectral analysis, three-dimensional analysis and Raman pigment analysis. Although the study is still ongoing, much that is new has been discovered, notably about the way features were marked on the map, Gough’s application to the map of a damaging reagent to render place-names readable, and the extent to which the original map (now dated to c.1400), although never completed, was nonetheless reworked on two different occasions in the fifteenth century, effectively creating two further maps. These and other findings are summarized here to encourage the further study of the map’s features that is needed before it can be fully understood.     

“They hate pigs,Chinese farmers … everything!” Beastly Racialization in Multiethnic Malaysia

Abstract: This paper details the construction of the pig and the pig industry in Malaysia. It argues that a pattern of “animal‐linked racialization” continually polices the boundary between the dominant, elite Malay‐Muslim hegemony and the comparatively less powerful Chinese pig farmers. Often subtle and implicit, such beastly racialization, drawing frequently from religious and nationalist tropes, renders visible the taboo subjects of race and racism in Malaysia. While a simplistic form of beastly racialization in relation to the pig industry is held by the political elites and non‐Chinese community, one cannot say that such a racialization has produced or sustained distinct racisms. Nonetheless, it is through the process of beastly racialization that we unravel the seemingly random acts of coercive policies that, taken in their entirety, threaten to stymie the future viability of the industry and continue to accentuate the visible social‐cultural disjuncture between the two biggest ethnic groups in Malaysia.     

Elites,ownership and the internationalisation of French business

This article is based on a prosopographical study of comparative business elites in France and Britain, drawing on the work of social theorists Pierre Bourdieu and Ezra Suleiman. The re is ev ide nce to sugge st that c rossshareholdings, at the heart of French capitalism since the 1960s, have begun to unravel, under pressure from globalisation. Yet the cultural substrata that underlie French busine ss practice s are pow erful. M ore likely than the complete undoing of cross-shareholdings is the adaptation of the national system to suit international structures. The authors argue, at least provisionally, that French shareholdings are being ceded for a stake in a wider international game, in an attempt to enable French management elites to maintain hegemonic control of leading domestic and European enterprises, in this way pre-emptively and proactively engaging with the structural logic of globalisation.     

THE DATA AVALANCHE IS HERE. SHOULDN’T WE BE DIGGING?

ABSTRACT.  We have access to an unprecedented amount of fine-grained data on cities, transportation, economies, and societies, much of these data referenced in geo-space and time. There is a tremendous opportunity to discover new knowledge about spatial economies that can inform theory and modeling in regional science. However, there is little evidence of computational methods for discovering knowledge from databases in the regional science literature. This paper addresses this gap by clarifying the geospatial knowledge discovery process, its relation to scientific knowledge construction, and identifying challenges to a greater role in regional science.