Growing Global: Foreign Direct Investment and the Internationalization of Local Suppliers in Scotland

The paper examines how the localization of multinationals can be linked to the globalization of local business networks, particularly whether domestic linkages with foreign subsidiaries can facilitate the internationalization of local suppliers. Detailed interviews were held with 16 suppliers and 8 foreign investors in both the Scottish oil-gas and electronics industries. The results highlight the importance to suppliers of 'piggy-backing' multinationals into new markets, but show its greater significance in the oil-gas industry. The paper concludes that piggy-backing is dependent on the strength and value of domestic links between suppliers and subsidiaries. Industry-specific factors determine the intensity of these linkages. The implications for such developments are being absorbed by planning and economic development policy-makers at regional and national levels, as supplier and investor development is increasingly being placed within a wider policy framework of cluster development.     

Lethal differences: a short history of the concepts of wealth and poverty in Danish epidemiological writings, 1858-1914

Through a study of the history of the concepts of wealth and poverty, this paper investigates the onset of a tradition in the conceptual architecture of epidemiological research concerning social differences in mortality rates from 1858 to 1914. It raises the question as to what the concepts of wealth and poverty meant to those who used them and what objects of interventions the conceptual architecture surrounding the concepts enabled the researchers to create. It argues that a transition began in the late 19th century in which an important framework for the understanding of causal relations behind the mortality patterns changed and that this change in turn influenced the scope of what was conceived as relevant objects of intervention.     

Astronomy,Architecture, and Landscape in Prehispanic Mesoamerica

This article synthesizes recent advances in the study of astronomy and worldview in architectural and urban planning in Mesoamerica. Throughout most of this cultural area, the practice of orienting civic and ceremonial buildings followed similar principles, although regional and time-dependent variations are present. Analysis of alignment data has revealed the existence of distinct and widespread orientation groups; most refer to sunrises and sunsets on particular dates, although two groups can be related to lunar and Venus extremes. Astronomically relevant directions frequently dominate considerable parts of urban layouts. The orientation and the location of important buildings often were conditioned by astronomical criteria and beliefs about specific landscape features; particularly notable are structures that were aligned to prominent mountaintops on the local horizon. Based on a variety of contextual data, I interpret the uses and significance of orientations in terms of agricultural concerns, cosmological concepts, and political ideology. I outline the evolution of orientation practices, drawing attention to pan-Mesoamerican trends, regional patterns, and diffusion processes.